Goldsby-Morrison Joins Bellator 44 Main Draw; Undercard Shuffled
Mike Whitman May 10, 2011
The new lineup for
Bellator Fighting Championships 44 is now official, as a
fifth-season bantamweight tournament qualifier between Bryan
Goldsby and Anthony
Morrison has been promoted to the televised card.
The change comes in light of an injury sustained by former welterweight champion Lyman Good, who was forced to withdraw from his Season 5 welterweight tournament qualifier against Dan Hornbuckle due to injury.
Headlined by a non-title affair between middleweight king Hector
Lombard and UFC veteran Falaniko
Vitale, Bellator 44 goes down May 14 at Caesar's Atlantic City
Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, N.J. The two-hour long broadcast
will air live on MTV2.
Injuries have also shuffled the show’s local undercard, as New York-based light heavyweight Randy Smith will now face Jamall Johnson -- a late replacement for Azunna Anyanwu -- and middleweight Gemiyale Adkins will step in for Armand Mrkanovic to meet UFC vet Jay Silva.
Goldsby (Pictured) debuted with Bellator in April 2010, upsetting former WEC talent Jeff Curran to earn his spot in the promotion's third-season bantamweight tournament. Though the Georgian would lose in the tournament quarterfinal to Ed West in September, Goldsby would receive a shot at redemption when he replaced an injured Ulysses Gomez in the semifinals. Three weeks after his loss to West, Goldsby dropped another unanimous decision, this time to eventual champion Zach Makovsky at Bellator 30. The 29-year-old snapped that two-fight skid with a victory over Aaron Williams at an Atlas Fights event in February.
Morrison is another battle-tested veteran and WEC vet. The fighter known as “Cheesesteak” posted an 0-2 record inside the little blue cage before being bounced from the promotion in April 2010. Following defeats to former WEC champion Mike Brown and top contender Chad Mendes, the Philadelphia product most recently had a third-round knockout of Nick Gonzalez changed to a no-contest in June at Matrix Fights 2.
The change comes in light of an injury sustained by former welterweight champion Lyman Good, who was forced to withdraw from his Season 5 welterweight tournament qualifier against Dan Hornbuckle due to injury.
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Injuries have also shuffled the show’s local undercard, as New York-based light heavyweight Randy Smith will now face Jamall Johnson -- a late replacement for Azunna Anyanwu -- and middleweight Gemiyale Adkins will step in for Armand Mrkanovic to meet UFC vet Jay Silva.
Goldsby (Pictured) debuted with Bellator in April 2010, upsetting former WEC talent Jeff Curran to earn his spot in the promotion's third-season bantamweight tournament. Though the Georgian would lose in the tournament quarterfinal to Ed West in September, Goldsby would receive a shot at redemption when he replaced an injured Ulysses Gomez in the semifinals. Three weeks after his loss to West, Goldsby dropped another unanimous decision, this time to eventual champion Zach Makovsky at Bellator 30. The 29-year-old snapped that two-fight skid with a victory over Aaron Williams at an Atlas Fights event in February.
Morrison is another battle-tested veteran and WEC vet. The fighter known as “Cheesesteak” posted an 0-2 record inside the little blue cage before being bounced from the promotion in April 2010. Following defeats to former WEC champion Mike Brown and top contender Chad Mendes, the Philadelphia product most recently had a third-round knockout of Nick Gonzalez changed to a no-contest in June at Matrix Fights 2.
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