A Bellator middleweight title fight pitting champion Gegard Mousasi vs. Austin Vanderford is set for Friday, Feb. 25. The promotion made the fight official on Thursday with the announcement that it will also take place at the 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland.
Mousasi has captured numerous world championships over the course of an 18-year-long career; however, the former DREAM and Strikeforce champion has never notched back-to-back title defenses. The 57-fight veteran seeks to right that wrong against top middleweight contender Vanderford.
Mousasi (48-7-2) enters the fight on a three-fight winning streak and has won 11 of his last 12. The lone loss is a majority decision to Rafael Lovato Jr. in which he dropped the title. However, he was able to win back the vacant strap after Lovato was forced to retire due to a brain injury. The veteran fighter has collected wins over big-name opponents over the past five years, including Douglas Lima, Lyoto Machida, Rory MacDonald, Chris Weidman, Uriah Hall, Vitor Befort and Thiago Santos.
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Vanderford (11-0) worked his way to the No. 1 contender slot with unanimous decision wins over the likes of Fabian Edwards (9-2) and Vinicius de Jesus (9-5).
