Bellator 196 Gets A Throwback Main Event After James Gallagher Injury

News broke today that has completely shaken up the Bellator 196 card that takes place on April 6th in Budapest, Hungary.

Originally slated to be a featherweight confrontation between young Irish prospect, James Gallagher vs Adam Borics has now turned into the exact opposite: A clash of former grizzled UFC veterans.

MMAFighting has reported the change due to a Gallagher hand injury and the new main event for Bellator 196 will be none other than former WEC and UFC lightweight champion, Benson “Smooth” Henderson as he takes on the first fighter to ever grace the front cover of Sports Illustrated, Roger “El Matador” Huerta.

PhotoCred: Tiger Muay Thai

Huerta departed from the UFC in 2009 after going on a two-fight losing streak(at the time, the first of his career) with losses to future title challengers, Kenny Florian and Gray Maynard. Since then he has gone 4-6 with the majority of his fights coming in Bellator and ONE Championships. Heading into this fight with Henderson, he rides a two-fight winning streak. The opposite being the case for the former multi-organizational champion.

Benson Henderson is one of MMA’s best lightweight champions in the sport’s history but hasn’t been able to re-kindle that champion like fire since he lost his title to Anthony Pettis in 2013. Henderson has gone 5-5 since with some impressive wins but he’s only won one of his last four which is his Bellator career to this point.

Henderson has already attempted to capture Bellator gold in both the lightweight and welterweight divisions and came up short in decision losses each time. The first being in his debut against Andrey Koreshkov then the second being against Michael Chandler in the fight before his last.

At a time, there were no brighter prospects than Roger Huerta. A win here for the thirty-four-year-old could be just what he needs to revitalize his career.

What do you think of this new main event? Who wins?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 3/12/2018.