Liam McGeary has a new opponent for Bellator 173.
This Friday night (Feb. 24), Bellator 173 will take place inside the SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland. McGeary was originally scheduled to face Chris Fields in the main event. There has been a change of plans.
Severe MMA has reported that Fields is out of his match-up with the former Bellator light heavyweight title holder due to an undisclosed injury. Fields later told Newstalk the issue is a carotid artery in his neck. He says it’ll heal on its own, but fighting at this juncture was out of the question.
McGeary’s new opponent is Vladimir Filipovic. “Fila” holds a professional mixed martial arts (MMA) record of 8-2. In his last outing, Filipovic defeated Arpad Torok by TKO in under two minutes. Filipovic has gone 5-1 in his last six bouts. He’ll enter the Bellator cage for the first time in his career this Friday.
McGeary is looking to rebound from his title loss to Phil Davis back in Nov. 2016. It was the first loss in McGeary’s professional career. Before defending his title against “Mr. Wonderful,” McGeary had been out of action for over a year due to a knee injury. The former champion recently admitted fighting someone the caliber of Davis after his long layoff was tough.
Bellator 173 is being co-promoted with BAMMA 28. The main event on the BAMMA portion of the card will be Norman Parke vs. Paul Redmond.
