Gegard Mousasi vs. Rafael Carvalho is Your New Bellator 200 Main Event
Early Monday morning it was reported via The Telegraph that Mirko “Cro-Cop” Filipovic had to withdraw from his fight with Roy Nelson at Bellator 200 this Friday. As a result, the new main event will be Gegard Mousasi versus Rafael Carvalho for the middleweight title. The co-main event will feature Britain’s own Michael “Venom” Page against David Rickels. If you’re looking to place a wager on either fights, finding the best betting sites is key to a successful run.
The injury to Filipovic is described as undisclosed so there is no information on how badly the Croatian striker has been injured. Without knowing the severity of the injury there is no telling if this will too remove him from his scheduled bout in Rizin Fighting Federation’s July event where he was due to fight an opponent yet to be named. The now-canceled bout was said to name the winner as an alternate for the heavyweight tournament Bellator has been holding this year so with the fight canceled the alternates are yet to be named.
Javy Ayala and Cheick Kongo were once considered for the role of alternates should any of the tournament competitors in the tournament have to withdraw due to injury. However, when the Nelson/ Filipovic bout was booked it was to be them and since Kongo won his fight against Ayala via knockout in the first round at Bellator 199. If Kongo is the only healthy man left on their roster with enough notoriety to be placed in the tournament as a replacement should anyone else get injured it could make for great story.
But with this type of tournament and the seemingly upward trend in fight cancelations in 2018 Bellator is likely to address the alternate fighter situation soon. Bellator 200 takes place Friday, May 25 at The SSE Arena, Wembley in London and will air on Paramount Network at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT.
