A little over a month away, Bellator 281 has taken a significant hit.
A pivotal welterweight clash between former champion Douglas Lima and surging contender Jason Jackson is off the May 13 event at OVO Arena Wembley. The fight, which was slated as the Bellator 281 co-main event, will be rescheduled.
A person with knowledge of the situation confirmed the news Sunday to MMA Junkie following an initial report from Marcel Dorff. No reason for the cancellation was given.
Lima, 34, currently is in the roughest patch of his career, having lost three consecutive fights for the first time in his career. After recapturing the welterweight title in the Bellator grand prix final against Rory MacDonald in October 2019, Lima (32-10 MMA, 14-6 BMMA) failed in his bid to become a dual champion when he was defeated by Gegard Mousasi in a vacant middleweight title bout at Bellator 250. Lima then lost the 170-pound title to Yaroslav Amosov at Bellator 260, followed by a narrow split decision loss in his rematch against Michael Page this past October.
Jackson (15-4 MMA, 6-1 BMMA), 31, has won five fights in a row. The past three have come against former WEC and UFC lightweight champ Benson Henderson, top contender Neiman Gracie and, most recently, Paul Daley at Bellator 260.
With the change, the Bellator 281 lineup includes:
- Michael Page vs. Logan Storley – for interim welterweight title
- Fabian Edwards vs. Lyoto Machida
- Denise Kielholtz vs. Kana Watanabe
- Paul Daley vs. Andrey Koreshkov
- Daniel Weichel vs. Robert Whiteford
- Alan Carlos vs. Charlie Ward
- Simon Biyong vs. Luke Trainer
- Alfie Davis vs. Tim Wilde
- Kate Jackson vs. Elina Kallionidou
- Oliver Enkamp vs. Mark Lemminger
- Lanchana Green vs. Chiara Penco
- Lee Chadwick vs. Maciej Rozanski
- Andrew Fisher vs. Attila Korkmaz
- Arunas Andriuskevicus vs. David Trallero
