Pat Curran injured, Patricky Freire vs. Derek Campos 2 set as new Bellator 167 main event

An injury to Pat Curran has led to a shift in the main card of Bellator 167, the second event in a two-night doubleheader for the promotion.

Curran (22-7 MMA, 12-4 BMMA) was set to face John Teixeira (18-1-2 MMA, 3-0 BMMA) in the card’s main event. Teixeira will now face Justin Lawrence (9-3 MMA, 2-1 BMMA) in the featherweight main card opener.

Derek Campos (17-6 MMA, 6-3 BMMA) will now rematch Patricky Freire (16-8 MMA, 9-7 BMMA) in the lightweight main event, according to a Bellator press release.

Bellator 167 takes place Dec. 3 at WinStar World Casino & Resort in Thackerville, Okla. The previous day, Bellator 166 takes place at the same location. Both events air on Spike following prelims on MMAjunkie.

Freire scored a second-round TKO of Campos in their first meeting at Bellator 117 in April 2014. He’s gone 3-3 in the six fights following that victory. Most recently, Freire was knocked out by Michael Chandler at the 2:14 mark of Round 1 in a bid to capture the vacant lightweight title.

Campos is 3-2 since his loss to Freire. He is currently riding a two-fight winning streak, knocking out Melvin Guillard at Bellator 149 and taking a decision win over Djamil Chan.

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.

Lawrence is also a UFC veteran, competing on “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 15 and piling up a 1-2 record in the promotion. He landed in Bellator with a June 2015 win over Sean Wilson before suffering a split decision loss to Emmanuel Sanchez. In his most recent bout, he scored a knockout of Isao Kobayashi at Bellator 157.

The promotion also announced a slate of preliminary bouts for the event.

The complete Bellator 167 card includes:

MAIN CARD (Spike, 9 p.m. ET)

• Derek Campos vs. Patricky Freire
• Emily Ducote vs. Ilima MacFarlane
• Andre Fialho vs. Chidi Njokuani
• Justin Lawrence vs. John Teixeira

PRELIMINARY CARD (MMAjunkie, 7 p.m. ET)

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