Bellator Champions Series San Diego features lightweight title fight – San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Undefeated lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov (left) will face Alexander Shabliy in the main event of the Bellator Champions Series San Diego at Pechanga Arena on September 7. (Photos courtesy of Bellator)

Bellator and its lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov return to San Diego.

Eleven months to the day after a packed Bellator 300 schedule, the Bellator Champions Series San Diego returns to Pechanga Arena and features undefeated Nurmagomedov facing Alexander Shabliy on September 7.

Tickets go on sale to the general public Thursday on AXS.com.

Nurmagomedov, the 26-year-old cousin of former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, has not fought since his one-sided unanimous decision victory over former champion Brent Primus at Bellator 300, which was voided due to a positive doping test. Because the banned substance was contained in a prescription drug and the ingestion was deemed accidental, Nurmagomedov (17-0, 1 NC) was not stripped of his title but was suspended for six months.

He and Shabliy (24-3) were scheduled to face each other for the championship in Paris in May before Nurmagomedov withdrew from participation due to injury almost a month earlier.

Shabliy, 31, has won nine fights in a row, including his last five in Bellator, earning a second-round TKO victory over Primus in June 2022 and a super-dominant unanimous decision victory over former lightweight champion Patricky Pitbull at Bellator 301 in November.

No other fights have been confirmed for the Bellator Champions Series San Diego, but there are two worth watching.

For her first fight since the Professional Fighters League took over Bellator in December, Bellator featherweight champion Cris Cyborg said she signed her contract to face PFL 2023 season winner Larissa Pacheco, but she recently told MMA Junkie Radio that there had been a change of plans at the PFL.

Cyborg, who defeated Cat Zingano by first-round TKO at Bellator 300, could alternatively see top Bellator contender Leah McCourt as her next opponent.