Bellator announces Shamrock-Gracie III, Kimbo-Dada 5000 for February

The third meeting between UFC Hall of Famers, Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie, has been set as the main event of a February Bellator MMA card, which is expected to serve as Bellator 149. MMA Fighting's Ariel Helwani confirmed that the bout will be an openweight contest. Also confirmed as the co-feature is a heavyweight matchup between former street brawlers, Kimbo Slice and Dada 5000.

Shamrock confirmed his fight with Gracie on his website on Friday night, prior to an official announcement made by Bellator President Scott Coker on the Bellator 145 broadcast.

Shamrock (28-16-2) returned to the cage earlier this year against Slice but was stopped in the first-round via devastating TKO at Bellator 139 in June. That was his first outing since 2010, when he was knocked out by Mike Bourke at a King of the Cage event.

Gracie (14-2-3) hasn't fought since 2007 at K-1 HERO's - Dynamite!! USA when he defeated Kazushi Sakuraba via three-round unanimous decision. His last Octagon appearance was in 2006, when he was stopped by former welterweight titleholder Matt Hughes at UFC 60. Royce submitted Ken at the first ever UFC event on November 12th, 1993, and then the two fought to a draw in their 1995 rematch, which lasted 36 minutes with no judges at ringside.

Slice (5-2), as mentioned above, made his return to the cage at Bellator 138 when he stopped Shamrock. After becoming popular from his backyard brawls on YouTube, he went 1-1 in the UFC, with a win over Houston Alexander and a loss to Matt Mitrione.

Dada 5000 (2-0) is undefeated as a pro-MMA fighter but hasn't competed since 2011 when he stopped Tim Papp via first-round TKO. In his MMA debut five years ago, he picked up a knockout over Cedric James in the Action Fight League organization. Like Slice, he's more known for his street fighting, and his popularity has come primarily through YouTube videos.

Below are two videos of the announcement from Friday night:

Bellator 149 takes place live from the Toyota Center in Houston, TX on Feb. 19.