Bellator 101 fight card complete with Held vs. Tirloni as featured prelim

The full fight card has been set for Bellator MMA’s first trip to Oregon.

Bellator 101 takes place Sept. 27 at The Moda Center at Rose Quarter (formerly known as Rose Garden) in Portland.

The four-fight main card, which features the start of Bellator’s Season 9 lightweight tournament, will air on Spike TV following prelims on Spike.com. As previously reported, the eight-man tournament includes Rich Clementi (45-22-1 MMA, 2-2 BMMA) vs. Rob Sinclair (12-2 MMA, 0-0 BMMA), Saad Awad (14-5 MMA, 2-2 BMMA) vs. Martin Stapleton (12-1 MMA, 0-0 BMMA), John Alessio (34-16 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) vs. Will Brooks (10-1 MMA, 2-1 BMMA) and Marcus Davis (22-9 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) vs. Alexander Sarnavskiy (23-1 MMA, 2-1 BMMA).

The preliminary card will include a key lightweight matchup between recent lightweight tournament finalist Marcin Held (15-3 MMA, 4-2 BMMA) and Ricardo Tirloni (15-4 MMA, 2-3 BMMA) as well as five other fights.

Held had a five-fight win streak snapped by Dave Jansen at Bellator 93 in March in the Season 7 tournament’s finals. That bout was delayed from December, when the two were supposed to fight – but couldn’t because Held couldn’t get into the casino venue in Indiana because he was only 20 years old at the time. Still regarded as one of Bellator’s best young prospects, he’ll be looking to get back on track to earn a spot in a future lightweight tournament.

Tirloni is in bad need of a win with losses in three of his past four fights. After signing with Bellator on an 10-fight win streak, he won his promotional debut at Bellator 55. But then he was stopped by Rick Hawn midway through their Season 6 lightweight tournament opening-round fight. He rebounded in the Season 7 tournament’s opening round, submitting Rene Nazare at Bellator 77. But he dropped a split decision to Jansen in the semifinals, then lost to Brooks in the Season 8 tourney’s opening round.

Also on the preliminary card, Joe Pacheco (6-0 MMA, 2-0 BMMA) meets Oregon native Tyson Jeffries (10-7 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) at middleweight; a pair of Strikeforce veterans meet when Andy Uhrich (8-3 MMA, 1-0 BMMA) takes on Nathan Coy (12-4 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) in a welterweight bout; Jeremiah Riggs (7-7 MMA, 1-2 BMMA) and Peter Aspenwal (2-4 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) meet in a middleweight fight; Scott Thometz (6-2 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) meets Brent Primus (2-0 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) at lightweight; and bantamweights Austin Springer (3-0 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) and Brent Alvarez (1-1 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) will clash.

The complete Bellator 101 card now includes:

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

• Rich Clementi vs. Rob Sinclair – lightweight tournament opening round
• Saad Awad vs. Martin Stapleton – lightweight tournament opening round
• John Alessio vs. Will Brooks – lightweight tournament opening round
• Marcus Davis vs. Alexander Sarnavskiy – lightweight tournament opening round

PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike.com, 7 p.m. ET)

• Marcin Held vs. Ricardo Tirloni
• Tyson Jeffries vs. Joe Pacheco
• Nathan Coy vs. Andy Uhrich
• Peter Aspenwal vs. Jeremiah Riggs
• Brent Primus vs. Scott Thometz
• Brent Alvarez vs. Austin Springer

For the latest on Bellator 101, stay tuned to the MMA Rumors section of the site.

(Pictured: Marcin Held)