Patricky Pitbull injured, Caldwell-Taimanglo 2 now headlines Bellator 167

Next week, Bellator will be doing a doubleheader at the WinStar World Casino & Resort in Thackerville, Oklahoma, with events on December 2nd and 3rd. Unfortunately, the December 3rd card has once again had to change main events.

MMA Fighting confirmed on Friday that Brazilian lightweight Patricky Freire is injured and out of his Bellator 167 rematch with Derek Campos. The original headliner for this card was a featherweight bout between Pat Curran and John Teixeira, but Curran withdrew due to injury. Per Fighting’s report, Bellator officials stated that Campos will not remain on the card, but will be paid his show money and will be booked to fight again in early 2017.

With two main events falling through due to injury, the new card-topper for next Saturday is a bantamweight rematch between Darrion Caldwell and Joe Taimanglo, which was confirmed by MMAjunkie on Saturday. They were originally scheduled as the evening’s co-headliners.

Caldwell (9-1) and Taimanglo (23-6-1) first met in the Bellator 159 main event back in July. The heavily favored Caldwell had won the first two rounds, but Taimanglo countered a takedown with a tight guillotine to start round 3, and forced Caldwell to tap out. It was a massive upset that sent Caldwell to his first career defeat. Taimanglo could’ve gotten a title shot off of that win, but he missed weight, and with a lack of bantamweights on the roster, Bellator has opted to book them in an immediate rematch.

While Bellator 167 has Caldwell and Taimanglo as the headlining act, the Bellator 166 main event is a bantamweight title fight between champion Eduardo Dantas and former champion Joe Warren. Both cards will air live on Spike TV.