Bellator 166, 167 going back-to-back Dec. 2-3 in Oklahoma with Dantas-Warren 2, Curran-Teixeira

For the first time in its history, Bellator will put on a pair of shows on back-to-back nights at the same venue when Bellator 166 and Bellator 167 touch down in Oklahoma.

Bellator 166 will take place Friday, Dec. 2, and Bellator 167 will be the following night at WinStar World Casino & Resort in Thackerville, Okla., the promotion announced today. Both main cards will air on Spike following prelims on MMAjunkie.

The Friday card already had been announced, including a previously booked featherweight fight between Emmanuel Sanchez and A.J. McKee. But now Bellator 166 gets a title fight at the top of the bill with bantamweight champion Eduardo Dantas (18-4 MMA, 4-1 BMMA) taking on former champ Joe Warren (14-5 MMA, 12-4 BMMA) in a rematch. (Check out the highlights of their first fight above, which took place at the same venue.)

The Saturday card will be headlined by a featherweight fight between former champ Pat Curran (22-7 MMA, 12-4 BMMA) against John Teixeira (18-1-2 MMA, 3-0 BMMA).

Dantas recaptured the bantamweight title in June with a unanimous decision win over Marcos Galvao at Bellator 156. He first won the title in 2012 when he submitted Zach Makovsky. After a loss outside the promotion, he defended the belt with a knockout of Galvao and a submission of Anthony Leone.

But at Bellator 128 two years ago, he lost the belt by unanimous decision to Warren in a close fight – 48-47 on all three judges’ scorecards. Warren went on to drop the title to Galvao. After a win over Mike Richman, Dantas was back in line for a title shot. And after waiting more than a year due to a Galvao injury, he won the belt back in June.

Warren has been up and down since unifying the bantamweight title with his win over Dantas at Bellator 128. After that, he was submitted by Galvao at Bellator 135 to lose the title. HE bounced back with a decision win over L.C. Davis in September 2015, but in March was choked unconscious by Darrion Caldwell at Bellator 151. A month ago, he rebounded with a submission of Sirwan Kakai at Bellator 161 and now gets yet another crack at the belt he once held.

Curran won Bellator’s featherweight title in March 2012 with a brutal knockout of Warren. He then defended it with wins over Patricio Freire and Shahbulat Shamhalaev. But at Bellator 106, he lost the belt to Daniel Straus. He won it back in a rematch with a late submission at Bellator 112, but then lost it in a rematch with Freire at Bellator 123. He followed that up with a split-decision loss to Daniel Weichel at Bellator 133, giving him three losses in four fights and the first losing skid of his career. But he has bounced back with decision wins over Sanchez and Georgi Karakhanyan to get back on track. (Check out the highlights of his win over Karakhanyan below.)

Teixeira was a contestant on the first season of “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil.” He got one fight in the UFC and lost a split call to Hugo Viana at UFC 147 more than four years ago. He didn’t get a second chance with the promotion. But he hasn’t lost since then. He went 4-0-1 with four stoppages in his home country of Brazil, then signed with Bellator in 2014. And there, he has three wins – all by split decision. When he steps in the cage against Curran in December, it will be more than 14 months since his most recent fight, a split-call win over Gleristone Santos more than a year ago.

For more on Bellator 166 and Bellator 167, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.