Eduardo Dantas injured, bantamweight title fight vs. Marcos Galvao pulled from Bellator 144

One cancelled rematch might make way to a trilogy as Bellator bantamweight title challenger and former champion, Eduardo Dantas, suffered a rib injury and pulled out of his fight against reigning champion, Marcos Galvao, as Combate reported. Bellator MMA issued an official press release on the situation:

A rib injury sustained by Eduardo Dantas (17-4) during training camp has forced him to withdraw from his "Bellator 144" main event matchup against Marcos Galvao (17-6-1) at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.

As a result, the fight has been cancelled and a middleweight contest pitting Brandon Halsey (9-0) against Rafael Carvalho (11-1) will now serve as the October 23 headliner.

Initially, MMA Fighting had reported that Joe Warren was in line to replace Dantas on two weeks notice and rematch Galvao, who defeated Warren earlier this year with a kneebar that made him scream, which meant a verbal submission. Warren is coming off a decision win over L.C. Davis on September 25th, but it looks like he won't get the chance to win back the title on short notice.

With the removal of Galvao vs. Dantas 2 and the promotion of Brandon Halsey vs. Rafael Carvalho to the main event, a preliminary card matchup between Goiti Yamauchi and Isao Kobayashi will be on the Spike TV main card, which starts at 9 PM ET/6 PM PT.