Bellator 263 Adds Three New Bouts, Loses Raufeon Stots vs. Magomed Magomedov

Bellator 263 has gained a trio of contests while losing an intriguing bantamweight matchup.

Promotion officials announced Monday that the following three bouts have been added to the July 31 card: Brent Primus vs. Islam Mamedov at lightweight; Vanessa Porto vs. Ilara Joanne at flyweight and Gadzhi Rabadanov vs. Daniel Carey at 150 pounds.

Missing from the bout order was a previously scheduled bantamweight matchup pitting Raufeon Stots against Magomed Magomedov. Sherdog.com subsequently confirmed that bout has been removed from Bellator 263 for undisclosed reasons.

Bellator 263 takes place at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif., and is headlined by a featherweight championship clash between Patricio Freire and A.J. McKee. The main card airs on Showtime at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT, while prelims stream on Bellator’s YouTube channel, Showtime Sports YouTube channel and Pluto TV at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. Primus vs. Mamedov is slated for the main draw, while Porto vs. Joanne and Rabadanov vs. Carey are on the prelims.

A former lightweight champion, Primus has scored back-to-back first-round submission wins over Tim Wilde and Chris Bugard since relinquishing the belt in a five-round decision defeat to Michael Chandler in December 2018. The 36-year-old Sports Lab product is 10-1 as a professional.

Mamedov has lost just once in 21 professional outings heading into his promotional debut. The 31-year-old Dagestan native went 8-0-1 during a stint with Professional Fighters League and World Series of Fighting from 2015 to 2019, posting notable wins over Thiago Tavares and Natan Schulte.

Porto had a four-bout winning streak snapped in her first promotional foray, as she dropped a three-round verdict to Liz Carmouche at Bellator 256 on April 9. The former Invicta FC flyweight queen owns wins over the likes of Roxanne Modafferi, Jennifer Maia, Germaine de Randamie and Tonya Evinger during her MMA career.

Brazil’s Joanne submitted UFC veteran Bec Rawlings in her Bellator debut before suffering a third-round TKO loss to Kana Watanabe in her sophomore outing at Bellator 237 in December 2019.

Rabadanov enters his first Bellator foray having won seven of his last eight professional fights. He is a former Eagle Fighting Championship title holder and has also competed for Fight Nights Global and Professional Fighters League.

Carey, meanwhile, is 3-3 in the California-based organization. In his most recent outing, he suffered a second-round knockout loss to Aaron Pico at Bellator 238 in January 2020.