Bellator 167: Caldwell vs. Taimanglo 2 will be held on December 3, 2016 at the WinStar World Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma. The event will air live in prime time on Spike TV.
Official fight card
Fight card
Bantamweight Darrion Caldwell vs. Joe Taimanglo
Featherweight Justin Lawrence vs. John Teixeira
Women's Flyweight Ilima-Lei Macfarlane vs. Emily Ducote
Welterweight Chidi Njokuani vs. André Fialho
Preliminary card (Spike.com)
Light Heavyweight Jarod Trice vs. Brandon Lee
Welterweight Abdul Razak Al Hassan vs. Dakota Cochrane
Lightweight Jonathan Gary vs. Aaron Roberson
Featherweight Brandon Philips vs. Stephen Banaszak
Welterweight Justin Patterson vs. Codale Ford
Welterweight Fernando Gonzalez vs. Chris Hicks
Background
Caldwell and Taimanglo met at Bellator 159 in July, the most recent fight for both men. Caldwell did well in the first two rounds, but was caught with a fight-ending guillotine choke at the 0:09 mark of Round 3 (check out video highlights of the bout above). The defeat was the first loss of Caldwell’s career.
The first meeting was set to be a title eliminator at 135 pounds, but Taimanglo missed weight, somewhat dampening the massive upset victory. Caldwell was a 14-1 favorite entering the bout, making the upset the fourth biggest in MMA history.
Taimanglo is now riding a four-fight winning streak, the run coming after suffering back-to-back losses. He has finished two of his four opponents during the streak.
Caldwell came into the first bout with Taimanglo off a career-best win over Joe Warren at Bellator 151. After dominating the former multi-division champ, Caldwell locked in a rear-naked choke at the 3:23 mark of Round 1.