Bellator 106 continues to get eaten up by the injury bug, as welterweight Karo Parisyan has been forced out of his scheduled bout against Cristiano Souza with an injury. Standing in for Parisyan will be Alejandro Garcia (14-5), a natural featherweight who'll take the fight on five day's notice. Bellator 106 takes place on Nov. 2 at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, California.
The one-time WEC champion and UFC standout Parisyan is the latest to fall off of Bellator 106, which was originally slated to be a pay-per-view event headlined by Tito Ortiz and Quinton Jackson. Ortiz was forced to withdraw from his headlining spot last week with a neck injury, which prompted Bellator officials to move the card to Spike TV, where it will air for free beginning at 9pm (EST). The main event now becomes the lightweight rematch between former champion Eddie Alvarez and the man who took his belt, Michael Chandler. The co-main event will feature a rematch between Emanuel Newton and Muhammad Lawal for the interim light heavyweight title, preceded by Pat Curran's featherweight title defense against Daniel Strauss.
Garcia has won eight of his last 10 bouts, and will be making his Bellator debut. Souza, who appeared on the inaugural season of Spike TV's "Fight Master," is 6-0 as a professional mixed martial artist (and 2-0 in Bellator).
The heavyweight tournament final between former UFC fighter Cheick Kongo and Vinicius Queiroz was also originally scheduled to be on the Nov. 2 Bellator card, but when Ortiz dropped out it was shifted to Bellator 107. That fight has since been pushed back again, as "Spartan" suffered an injured knee in training.
Below is the full Bellator 106 card.
Bellator 106 main card (Spike TV, 9pm ET)
Michael Chandler vs. Eddie Alvarez
Muhammad Lawal vs. Emanuel Newton
Pat Curran vs. Daniel Strauss
Mike Bronzoulis vs. Joe Riggs
Mike Richman vs. Akop Stepanyan
Bellator 106 prelims (Spike.com, 7pm ET)
Alejandro Garcia vs. Cristiano Souza
Jesse Juarez vs. Joe Williams
Brandon Halsey vs. Hector Ramirez
Mike Guymon vs. Aaron Miller
Joe Camacho vs. Cleber Luciano
Darren Smith vs. Josh Smith