Due to an injury, former featherweight champion A.J. McKee will be replaced by RIZIN lightweight champion Roberto de Souza in the upcoming Bellator x RIZIN 2 match against Patricky Pitbull, though McKee remains as the first alternate.
Former featherweight champion A.J. McKee’s injury has led to a significant change in the Bellator lightweight grand prix commencing at Bellator x RIZIN 2. It was officially confirmed at a Tuesday press conference that RIZIN lightweight champion Roberto de Souza will replace McKee. De Souza will compete in a 161-pound catchweight bout against Patricky Pitbull, which will serve as the main event on the Showtime-broadcast card. The match is still set to be the quarterfinals of the lightweight tournament. Bellator CEO Scott Coker added that McKee will remain available to serve as a first alternate.
Bellator x RIZIN 2 is taking place at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, on July 30, which translates to July 29 in the U.S., considering the time difference. The card for Bellator x Rizin 2 features fighters from both promotions in head-to-head matchups, and it will serve as the opener for Super Rizin 2. The second card announced so far includes A.J. McKee’s old rival, Patricky Pitbull’s brother, Patricio Pitbull. As the current featherweight champion, Patricio will face Chihiro Suzuki.
After ex-champion Kai Asakura dropped out of Super Rizin 2 due to injury, Hiromasa Ougikubo will now fight against Juan Archuleta for the RIZIN bantamweight title. The event, known as Bellator x RIZIN 2, marks the second head-to-head meeting of fighters from both Bellator and RIZIN. Roberto de Souza, also known as “Satoshi”, had previously outscored UFC veteran, Spike Carlyle, this comes after his decision loss to McKee at Bellator x RIZIN 1. Meanwhile, Patricio Pitbull is returning to the competition following his unsuccessful attempt at winning the Bellator bantamweight belt from Sergio Pettis at Bellator 297. Despite an armbar loss to Kleber Koike Erbst, Suzuki’s match was deemed a no-contest; Erbst failed to make the weight and was consequently stripped of the title.