Bellator 278: Velasquez vs. Carmouche is an upcoming mixed martial arts event produced by Bellator MMA that will take place on April 22, 2022, at the Neal S. Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States.
Fight Card
Main Card (Showtime)
Women's Flyweight Juliana Velasquez (c) vs. Liz Carmouche Women's Flyweight Championship
Bantamweight Nikita Mikhailov vs. Enrique Barzola Bantamweight WGP Wild Card Qualifier
Bantamweight Jornel Lugo vs. Danny Sabatello Bantamweight WGP Wild Card Qualifier
Light Heavyweight Christian Edwards vs. Grant Neal
Catchweight (160 lb) Nate Andrews vs. Manny Muro
Preliminary Card (Youtube/Pluto TV)
Lightweight Tofiq Musayev vs. Zach Zane
Welterweight Dante Schiro vs. Scotty Hao
Featherweight Weber Almeida vs. Fabricio Franco
Bantamweight Cee Jay Hamilton vs. Érik Pérez
Welterweight Makoa Cooper vs. Blake Perry
Background
Bellator 278 will be dedicated for military and first responders meaning that there will be no tickets on sale to the general public. The event is headlined a Bellator Women's Flyweight Title Bout between undefeated flyweight champ, Juliana Velasquez and challenger Liz Carmouche.
The event will also feature two wild card qualifier bouts for the Bellator Bantamweight World Grand Prix due to injuries removing Bellator Bantamweight World Champion Sergio Pettis and James Gallagher from the tournament. Josh Hill will face Enrique Barzola with the winner meeting Magomed Magomedov in the opening round while the winner of the second qualifier between Jornel Lugo and Daniel Sabatello will face Leandro Higo in the first round of the tournament. Due to Covid, Hill had to pull out of the bout and was replaced by Nikita Mikhailov.
A bantamweight bout between Cee Jay Hamilton and Jared Scoggins was scheduled for this event. However, Scoggins pulled out of the bout for unknown reasons and was replaced by Érik Pérez.