Mohegan Sun Arena is an ocean away from Gegard Mousasi’s hometown in the Netherlands. But the casino resort venue in Uncasville, Connecticut, has provided him with the comfort of home.
Mousasi made his Bellator debut in the building in 2017, defeating former middleweight champion Alexander Shlemenko. That earned the former UFC contender and Strikeforce and Dream champ a title fight, which he won — not at Mohegan. But Mousasi was back in those familiar surroundings again last October, by then over a year removed from having dropped the Bellator belt. On a crisp New England fall night, Mousasi had a chance to reclaim his championship. He seized the opportunity.
In a fight for the vacant 185-pound title, Mousasi defeated then-welterweight-champ Douglas Lima to become a two-time Bellator champion.
This Friday in Uncasville, in the main event of Bellator 264, Mousasi makes the first title defense of his second reign. He’ll take on a hot John Salter, who is 8-1 in Bellator with all but one of his wins coming by finish.
Over the last 13 months, as the coronavirus pandemic has limited Bellator’s ability to put on its usual traveling show, the company has held 19 fight cards at the venue on the Mohegan Indian Reservation in southeastern Connecticut. The event two weeks ago in Los Angeles, at which A.J. McKee won the Bellator Featherweight World Grand Prix by dethroning Patricio “Pitbull” Freire, was the company’s first card in the United States in over a year that was not at Mohegan Sun, ending a run of 14 shows in a row at the arena. After Friday, Bellator will venture off to stage fights in South Dakota, London, Phoenix, Moscow and Dublin.
But before leaving “home,” Bellator and its middleweight champion have business to take care of. Here are…