MMA Odds and Ends for Tuesday: Noad Lahat vs. Jeremiah Labiano new Bellator 188 main event

With featherweight champion Patricio “Pitbull” Freire injured, his title matchup against Daniel Weichel has been cancelled. Instead the the co-main event matchup pitting Noad Lahat vs. Jeremiah Labiano is now the new main event. Ram Giboa was the first to report the news on Twitter. 

Freire (26-4) took to Instagram to explain the injury and he hopes to return by Feburary.

 

(Em português nos comentários) I’m sad to announce I’ll no longer be fighting in Israel next week. Multiple injuries prevent me to perform. A couple months ago due to a training accident I suffered a serious injury and started treating it immediately. I had to stop training for a few weeks and then I was able to start with several limitations. But due to those, other parts of my body were overcharged and new injuries kept piling up. I’ve been doing physical therapy three times a day, I was lent a 25k dollars machine to sleep with every day, and although I wasn’t in my best condition I had no intention to pull out. In all my years in Bellator I only pulled out of a fight once due to a hand fracture. Up until Wednesday the fight was 100% on. On Thursday came the doubt as one of the injuries aggravated. I deliberated with my team what to do up to 2am. I decided to test myself on Friday on my last sparring session. And then it became obvious I had no condition to step up in that cage. It’d be a disrespect to me, to the fans, to my opponent and to Bellator. I’ll have to take 30 days off and then I’ll be able to start training again. I plan to fight in February at the latest and defend my belt against Daniel Weichel. See you all soon.

A post shared by @patriciopitbull on Nov 12, 2017 at 11:04am PST 

Bellator signs former WWE champion Jake Hager (Jack Swagger)

As announced on The MMA Hour Monday, former WWE champion Jake Hager (know as Jack Swagger in the ring) has signed with Bellator MMA and will make his debut as a heavyweight in 2018. Hager (0-0) is 35-years-old and was a standout wrestler at the University of Oklahoma where he set a single-season record for most pins in a season (with 30) in 2006.