Former Bellator champ Raufeon Stots booked for return on Sept. 7

Former Bellator interim bantamweight champion Raufeon Stots will return to the cage after a 10-month absence from fighting.

Stots will face Glover Teixeira protégé Marcos Breno in the Bellator Champions Series: San Diego co-main event on September 7th. The promotion announced the matchup in a press release on Tuesday.

Stots returns after a unanimous decision rematch win over Danny Sabatello in November at Bellator 301. Before that, he lost to lineal Bellator bantamweight champion Patchy Mix at Bellator 295 in the Grand Prix Final.

The loss to Mix snapped an 11-fight winning streak for Stots, who has defeated the likes of Juan Archuleta and Magomed Magomedov during his Bellator tenure. Before that defeat, his last loss was to current UFC bantamweight contender Merab Dvalishvili in 2017.

Raufeon Stots vs. Marcos Breno added to Bellator San Diego

https://twitter.com/BellatorMMA/status/1810714027095359914

Stots will face a formidable challenge in Breno, a 26-year-old up-and-comer who has won three of his last four fights. He suffered his first Bellator loss to Sabatello at Bellator 294 last year.

Breno won his Bellator debut at Bellator 284 in 2022 after brief stints in organizations such as LFA and Arest FC. He enters Bellator Champions Series: San Diego with a 15-3-0 professional MMA record.

Stots and Breno are both looking to keep pace in the Bellator bantamweight title picture. Stots, in particular, hopes to earn a potential rematch with Mix with an impressive victory over Breno.

As for Breno, he could emerge as a top contender with a win over a proven veteran like Stots. Mix’s next title defense has yet to be booked, as of this writing, since a close win over Magomedov earlier this year in Paris.

As of this writing, the main event for Bellator Champions Series: San Diego has yet to be revealed. In addition to the Stots vs. Breno booking, Lorenz Larkin and Luke Trainer will make their Bellator returns on the card.