On Saturday, the Bellator debut of Fedor Emelianenko was canceled just moments before the event began.
At Bellator 172, Emelianenko was scheduled to fight Matt Mitrione in the main event. However, the morning of the fight, Mitrione was forced to withdraw from the fight due to kidney stones.
Once he found out Emelianenko needed an opponent, Chael Sonnen did not take long to offer his services.
As first reported by @arielhelwani, Chael Sonnen just confirmed to me via text he offered to fight Fedor on several hours notice tonight.
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) February 19, 2017
In January, at Bellator 170, Sonnen had a disappointing Bellator debut when he was submitted in the first round of his fight against Tito Ortiz.
Despite offering to step in on just a few hours notice, Bellator was not able to make the fight happen.
During the Bellator prelims, it was announced Emelianenko will wait to fight Mitrione at a later date.
With Emelianenko vs. Mitrione canceled, the new Bellator 172 main event is a lightweight fight between Josh Thomson vs. Patricky “Pitbull” Freire. Bellator 172 takes place at the SAP Center in San Jose, California.
