Paul Daley will get a new opponent for his final walk to the cage.
Former welterweight champion Andrey Koreshkov has been forced out of Bellator 281 in London, and Wendell Giacomo will step in on short notice to face Daley on May 13 at OVO Arena Wembley, promotion officials announced Tuesday.
Giacomo (9-2 MMA, 0-0 BMMA), a Pitbull Brothers fighter, has won eight of his past nine fights. He was last seen in action as an alternate for the LFA welterweight grand prix, where the Brazilian defeated Uyran Carlos by unanimous decision in July but couldn’t continue in the tournament after he wasn’t cleared to compete.
Meanwhile, Daley (43-18-2 MMA, 9-5 BMMA) will have his projected retirement fight on home soil. The 39-year-old veteran is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Jason Jackson at Bellator 260 in what was his third straight catchweight bout at 175 pounds. Prior to that, the hard-hitting Brit scored wins over Erick Silva, Saad Awad, and Sabah Homasi.
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. Wendell Giacomo
- 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
