A quarter of Ireland’s fighting talent has been added to Bellator’s return to Dublin on September 23.
Former lightweight title contender Peter Queally will seek to rebound from a trio of defeats in the Bellator cage when he takes on Italy’s Daniele Miceli at Bellator 299, which will take place in the 3Arena in the Irish capital’s docklands area. The Waterford man will be looking to get back to winning ways after losing to former Bellator and UFC champions Patricky Freire, Benson Henderson. Queally was stopped in the second round of his most recent fight in February by American Bryce Logan.
Elsewhere, Irish middleweight veteran Charlie Ward will take on 33-fight veteran Gregory Babene, who will come into the fight on the back of a seven-fight win streak. He most recently defeated UK fighter Mike Shipman at Bellator 280 in May of last year.
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Ciaran Clarke, the 7-0 prospect who has a knack for exclusively taking part in exciting fights, will fight Poland’s Przemysław Gorny in what will be Clarke’s first return to bantamweight since his amateur days more than a decade ago. So far, each of the Drogheda man’s seven career wins have come in the featherweight fold.
Finally, one of Irish MMA’s biggest prospects, Darragh Kelly, will look to improve his record to a perfect 5-0 when he squares off with Netherlands native Jelle Zeegers. Kelly was granted special dispensation to fight outside of Bellator earlier in June where he scored a second-round submission victory against Andre Ferreira.
The Bellator 299 card is to be headlined by a middleweight world title bout between the outstanding champion Johnny Eblen and challenger Fabian Edwards, brother of UFC champ Leon. Other bouts confirmed for the event are a featherweight contest between SBG’s Pedro Carvalho and Aaron Pico, while Sinead Kavanagh will seek to secure a second world title shot with a featherweight win over the unbeaten Sara Collins.
The unbeaten Kenny Mokhonoana will also look to extend his streak against fellow undefeated featherweight Josh O’Connor and Brian ‘The Pikeman’ Moore takes on the 13-1 Otto Rodrigues.
