Ulysses Gomez file photo: Jeff Sherwood | Sherdog.com
Tachi Palace Fights flyweight champion
Ulysses Gomez will meet
Travis Reddinger in the Bellator Fighting Championships Season 3 bantamweight tournament quarter-finals at
Bellator 27 on Thursday at the Majestic Theatre in San Antonio. A nine-bout lineup has been finalized for the event.
Gomez last appeared at Tachi Palace Fights 4 in May, when he earned a unanimous decision over
Luis Gonzalez and captured the California-based promotion’s 125-pound crown. A Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt under Marc Laimon, the 27-year-old Los Angeles native has secured five of his six career victories by submission. Gomez suffered his lone career defeat in a unanimous decision to reigning Shooto flyweight titleholder
Rambaa Somdet in 2008. He will carry a four-fight winning streak into his Bellator debut.
The 28-year-old Reddinger trains under Sergio Cunha, a man who has honed the skills of fighters like reigning UFC middleweight champion
Anderson Silva, current UFC light heavyweight kingpin Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and former two-division UFC titleholder
B.J. Penn. He will ride a four-fight winning streak into his promotional debut and has secured 12 of his 14 career victories by knockout, technical knockout or submission. Reddinger bares a “BELLATOR” tattoo unrelated to the promotion across his mid-section.
Bellator 27 will feature two other bantamweight tournament bouts, as
Bryan Goldsby meets
Ed West and
Nick Mamalis squares off with
Zach Makovsky. A featherweight title match pairing unbeaten champion
Joe Soto with Season 2 featherweight tournament winner
Joe Warren will headline the show.
Perfect in nine professional appearances, Soto stopped durable Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt
Diego Saraiva on a first-round cut at Bellator 19 three months ago. The 23-year-old ascended to Bellator’s featherweight throne in 2009, with tournament wins over
Ben Greer, EliteXC veteran
Wilson Reis and
Yahir Reyes. Soto, who has finished seven of his nine foes inside one round, wrestled alongside UFC standouts
Cain Velasquez and
Jon Jones at Iowa Central Community College.
A decorated Greco-Roman wrestler who won gold at the 2006 Pan-Am Games, the 2006 FILA Wrestling World Championships and the 2007 Wrestling World Cup, Warren was a collegiate All-American at the University of Michigan. The brash 33-year-old outpointed the previously unbeaten Patricio “Pitbull” Freire en route to a unanimous decision to win the 2010 Bellator featherweight tournament in June. Warren -- who plans to compete at the 2012 Olympics -- stunned the mixed martial arts community in 2009, when he debuted with a first-round technical knockout win over former World Extreme Cagefighting bantamweight champion
Chase Beebe and then outpointed Japanese star
Norifumi Yamamoto.
Joe Soto vs.
Joe Warren
Ulysses Gomez vs.
Travis Reddinger
Bryan Goldsby vs.
Ed West
Nick Mamalis vs.
Zach Makovsky
Andrew Craig vs.
Rodrigo Pinheiro
Aaron Barringer vs.
Gilbert Jimenez
Derek Lewis vs.
Richard Odoms
Joe Christopher vs.
Andrew Chappelle
Brian Lightfoot vs.
Shane Faulkner
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