Bellator 139 airs this Friday on SpikeTV with a main event featuring heavyweights Cheick Kongo and Alexander Volkov. The winner of the bout could earn the next shot at current Bellator heavyweight champion Vitaly Minakov.
In the lightweight division, Bellator veteran David Rickels faces the much more experienced John Alessio in what amounts to a comeback fight for Rickels. Another fighter on the comeback road is former Bellator featherweight Pat Curran, who returns to action to face Emanuel Sanchez. Rickels, who is 16-3 overall, had a disappointing loss to Patricky Freire in March of 2014 that forced him to consider retirement, but he came back with a win over Davi Ramos in October and he is looking to make it two wins in a row, something he hasn’t done since March of 2013.
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Curran is in even bigger need of a win, as he lost his featherweight title to Patricio Freire in September of 2014, then he lost a title eliminator match to Daniel Weichel this last February. Losing three fights in a row is something Curran needs to avoid if he wants to remain relevant.
The final main card match sees middleweights Joe Schilling and Hisaki Kato squaring off. Schilling is crossing back into MMA here, and he is scheduled for a feature fight on Belaltor’s September show in a kickboxing format against Paul Daley. Because of his ring-time kickboxing, Schilling has a wide competition advantage over Katyo, who is 4-1 in MMA and coming off his first career loss this past March.
The books are carrying lines for the four main card fights of the event. Check out our latest video blog where we review the main card odds for Bellator 139.