Hisaki Kato gets call to face Ralek Gracie at Bellator 170

The date for Ralek Gracie’s Bellator debut was already set, now he has an opponent.

Gracie (3-0 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) will face off with Hisaki Kato (7-2 MMA, 2-1 BMMA) in a middleweight bout at Bellator 170, which takes place Jan. 21, 2017 at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., the main card airs on Spike following prelims on MMAjunkie. Chael Sonnen meets Tito Ortiz in the night’s main event.

Gracie, 31, last fought at Dream 14 on May 29, 2010, defeating Kazushi Sakuraba by unanimous decision. Prior to that fight, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist scored armbar victories over Alavutdin Gadzhiyev and Katsuyori Shibata.

Kato kicked off his Bellator career with a stunning superman punch knockout of Joe Schilling at Bellator 139. He was then knocked out by Melvin Manhoef at Bellator 146. Following the loss, Kato has rattled off back-to-back victories, beating Yuta Watanabe at Rizin FF 1 and A.J. Matthews at Bellator 162, both wins coming by TKO.

With the addition, the Bellator 170 card includes:

• Tito Ortiz vs. Chael Sonnen
• Ralek Gracie vs. Hisaki Kato
• Colleen Schneider vs. opponent TBA

For more on Bellator 170, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.