Keri Anne Taylor-Melendez out of Bellator 180, Heather Hardy's debut bumped to main card

Although the lineup for Bellator’s New York debut extravaganza has held together quite well (so far), the card did take a blow today with the withdrawal of Keri Anne Taylor-Melendez.

Taylor-Melendez (1-0 MMA, 1-0 BMMA), the wife of UFC fighter Gilbert Melendez, was scheduled to meet Sadee Monseratte Williams (0-1 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) at the Spike-televised Bellator 180 card, which airs prior to Bellator NYC on pay-per-view at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

She’s been forced to withdraw from the contest due to an undisclosed injury, which Taylor-Melendez confirmed on Instagram following an initial report from MMAFighting.com.

Super devastated I will not be testing myself in New York at #bellator180. I wanted this feeling back. ?? injuries suck. Already had weeks of training in the books. My best has yet to come and I'll bounce back better then ever. @bellatormma and #ScottCoker have been all class per usual.

A post shared by Keri Anne Taylor Melendez (@kerimelendez415) on Jun 12, 2017 at 1:15pm PDT

There will be no replacement opponent for Williams, and a result of the fight being scrapped another women’s atomweight fight between undefeated pro boxing standout Heather Hardy (0-0 MMA, 0-0 BMMA), who is making her MMA debut at the event, and Alice Yauger (4-5 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) will be elevated from the non-televised prelims, which stream on MMAjunkie.

The Bellator 180 lineup now includes:

MAIN CARD (Spike, 8 p.m. ET)

• Champ Phil Davis vs. Ryan Bader – for light heavyweight title
• Neiman Gracie vs. Dave Marfone
• James Gallagher vs. Chinzo Machida
• Heather Hardy vs. Alice Yauger

PRELIMINARY CARD (6 p.m. ET)

• Ryan Couture vs. Haim Gozali
• Anthony Giacchina vs. Jerome Mickle
• Hugh McKenna vs. John Salgado
• Matt Rizzo vs. Sergio da Silva
• Bradley Desir vs. Nate Grebb

For more on Bellator NYC and Bellator 180, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.