Anthony Leone replaces injured Rafael Silva, faces champ Eduardo Dantas at Bellator 111

Bellator MMA’s 2013 Summer Series bantamweight tournament winner Rafael “Morcego” Silva (21-3 MMA, 2-0 BMMA) has been forced to withdraw from a planned fight with champ Eduardo Dantas (15-3 MMA, 5-0 BMMA), and Anthony Leone(13-6 MMA, 3-3 BMMA) has agreed to take his place.

Bellator officials today announced that the man Silva beat in the tournament final, Leone, agreed to take the fight when Season 9 bantamweight tournament winner Joe Warren was forced to turn down the opportunity.

“This was a difficult process with Silva suffering injury, but when we considered all our options, we felt like this decision made the most sense,” Bellator Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney stated. “After we heard the news on Silva, we immediately made the call to our other bantamweight tournament winner Joe Warren. Joe informed us he was still rehabbing a previous knee injury and would be unable to compete on the March 7 card, but he will be 100 percent ready to go for his originally scheduled fight in May.”

Dantas vs. Leone now headlines Bellator 111, which takes place March 7 at WinStar World Casino in Thackerville, Okla. The main card airs on Spike TV following prelims on Spike.com.

Dantas, who’s ranked No. 8 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA bantamweight rankings, looks for his second consecutive title defense. After submitting Zach Makovsky to win the title in 2012, the Brazilian and Nova Uniao member suffered a knockout loss to Tyson Nam in a non-title bout at Shooto Brazil 33. However, the 25-year-old rebounded with a knockout victory over friend and mentor Marcos Glavao at Bellator 89 this past February.

Meanwhile, Leone is a WEC and Strikeforce veteran who in 2012 made a drop down to the bantamweight division. It spelled instant success, as he earned four straight wins to open his run in the division. That streak was snapped in October, when he suffered a decision loss to Silva. However, he’ll now have a chance to challenge for the Bellator bantamweight title.

With the change, the Bellator 111 card now includes:

MAIN CARD

• Champ Eduardo Dantas vs. Anthony Leone - for bantamweight title
• Lavar Johnson vs. Ryan Martinez – Season 10 heavyweight tournament opening round
• Peter Graham vs. Siala Siliga – Season 10 heavyweight tournament opening round
• Mark Holata vs. Alexander Volkov – Season 10 heavyweight tournament opening round

PRELIMINARY CARD

• Rich Hale vs. Blagoi Ivanov – Season 10 heavyweight tournament opening round
• Cortez Coleman vs. Daniel Miller
• Javy Ayala vs. Eric Prindle
• Matt Jones vs. Emeliano Sordi
• Chris Jones vs. Brent Primus
• Stephen Banaszak vs. Treston Thomison

For the latest on Bellator 111, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of the site.

(Pictured: Anthony Leone)