Bellator 156: Galvao vs. Dantas will be held on June 17, 2016 at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California. The event will air live in prime time on Spike TV.
Official fight card
Fight card
Bantamweight Marcos Galvao (c) vs. Eduardo Dantas For the Bellator Bantamweight Championship.
Welterweight TBA vs. Chidi Njokuani
Middleweight Brandon Halsey vs. John Salter
Middleweight Chris Honeycutt vs. Mikkel Parlo
Preliminary card (Spike.com)
Middleweight A.J. Matthews vs. Ben Reiter
Welterweight Ricky Rainey vs. Thiago Jambo
Light Heavyweight Jermaine McDermott vs. Blake Watkins
Catchweight (140 pounds) Paul Ruiz vs. C. Buron-Navarro
Heavyweight Javy Ayala vs. JR Lugo
Lightweight Nick Bustamante vs. Antoine Smith
Lightweight CJ Keith vs. Carrington Banks
Featherweight Chris Avila vs. Justin Smitley
Light Heavyweight John Paul Elias vs. Jose Cabesas
Heavyweight Chris Lewis vs. Ernest James
Lightweight Luis Jauregui vs. Ryan Tobar
Background
Marcos Galvao will make the first defense of his Bellator Bantamweight Championship title against Eduardo Dantas. The rematch was originally scheduled for Bellator 150, but was scrapped following a last-minute illness suffered by Galvao. Both fighters cut their teeth with Andre Pederneiras’ Nova Uniao squad in Rio de Janeiro, until their paths crossed at Bellator 89. Dantas won the fight via a second-round knockout. Dantas went on to defend the title against Anthony Leone before losing it to Joe Warren at Bellator 128. In turn, Galvao pieced together three consecutive victories and then defeated Warren via second-round technical submission to become the new champion.
Douglas Lima was originally scheduled to face Chidi Njokuani, but was pulled from this bout when he got the call to headline Bellator 158 in London against Paul Daley due to an injury that forced Josh Koscheck out of that matchup.
