Bellator 169 heads to Ireland with 'King Mo' vs. Satoshi Ishii headliner

Bellator 169, which is a joint venture with BAMMA, heads to Ireland on Dec. 16 with a heavyweight headliner.

Officials today announced Muhammed Lawal (19-5 MMA, 8-4 BMMA) meets Satoshi Ishii (14-6-1 MMA, 0-1 BMMA) in the main event.

Bellator 169 takes place at 3Arena in Dublin, and the main card airs on Spike following prelims on MMAjunkie.

Lawal was riding a seven-fight winning streak, which included winning Rizin FF’s two-event heavyweight grand prix, before a unanimous-decision loss to light heavyweight Phil Davis in May. The 35-year-old former Strikeforce champion, who’s No. 14 in he USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA light-heavyweight rankings, meets another amateur-wrestling standout in Olympic gold medalist Ishii, a 29-year-old Japanese fighter who recently made his Bellator debut and suffered a split-decision defeat to Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. Ishii is now in a 2-4 skid.

Also slated for the card is Irish featherweight James Gallagher (4-0 MMA, 1-0 BMMA), who awaits an opponent. He was originally scheduled to fight Kirill Medvedovski (7-2 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) at Bellator 164 on Nov. 10.

Slated for the BAMMA portion of the card are bantamweight champ Tom DuQuesnoy (13-1) vs. Alan Philpott (16-8), Ronnie Mann (25-8-1) vs. Martin Stapleton (18-4) for the featherweight title, and featherweights Dylan Tuke (3-0) vs. Sean Tobin (4-2).

The latest Bellator 169 card now includes:

• Satoshi Ishii vs. Muhammed Lawal
• James Gallagher vs. TBA
• Champ Tom Duquesnoy vs. Alan Philpott – for BAMMA bantamweight title
• Ronnie Mann vs. Martin Stapleton – for BAMMA vacant featherweight title
• Sean Tobin vs. Dylan Tuke

For more on Bellator 164 and Bellator 169, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.