Bellator report: Halsey vs. Grove headlines Bellator 137, Joey Beltran drops to middleweight

New Bellator middleweight champion Brandon Halsey will make his first title defense on May 15th in Temecula, California. Halsey will face UFC veteran and The Ultimate Fighter season 3 winner Kendall Grove in the Bellator 137 main event. Bellator officials confirmed the bout with Sherdog over the weekend, then made the formal announcemnt in a press release on Tuesday. Meanwhile, "The Mexicutioner" is making another weight class change. Joey Beltran tweeted out his test cut to 185 as he is reportedly going to make his middleweight debut versus fan favorite Brian Rogers at Bellator 136. (Via The MMA Report)

Test cut to 186 was a success! @BellatorMMA fight announcement coming soon!!! pic.twitter.com/LR9TtN78yE

— joey beltran (@mexicutioner760) February 28, 2015

Halsey (8-0) captured the Bellator middleweight belt by choking out Alexander Shlemenko in just 35 seconds last September. The 28-year-old also defeated Brett Cooper and Joe Pacheco to win the season 10 tournament, which earned him his title shot. Grove (21-14, 1 NC) is 2-1 in Bellator, defeating Joe Vedepo and Christian M'Pumbu but getting KO'd by Cooper. "Da Spyder" is 9-5 since his UFC release in 2011 after he was defeated by Tim Boetsch.

Beltran (15-11, 1 NC) spent the bulk of his career at heavyweight but switched to light heavyweight after he was knocked out by Lavar Johnson in January 2012. "The Mexicutioner" competed for the Bellator LHW title last year and was felled by the spinning backfist of Emanuel Newton. With just 1 win in his last 6 fights, Beltran now looks towards another drop in weight class for his next fight. Rogers (11-7) is known as an action fighter who looks for the KO every time. "The Professional Predator" has lost 3 out of his last 4, including a pair of tournament losses to Dan Cramer an Mikkel Parlo. His flying knee destruction of Adrian Miles was one of the best finishes of 2014.

The Bellator 136 main event pits lightweight champion Will Brooks against Dave Jansen in Irvine, California.