Promotion officials confirmed the pairing following an initial report from MMAjunkie.com. Bellator 284 takes place at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D., and is headlined by a welterweight clash between Neiman Gracie and Goiti Yamauchi. The main card airs on Showtime at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, while prelims stream on Showtime Sports YouTube channel, the Bellator MMA YouTube channel and Pluto TV at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT.
The promotion announced several other bouts for the preliminary card: Pat Downey III vs. Jeff Souder at middleweight; Said Sowma vs. Gokham Saricam at heavyweight; Bailey Schoenfelder vs. Mark Currier at heavyweight; Josh Hill vs. Matheus Mattos at bantamweight; Mitchell McKee vs. Tony Ortega at bantamweight and DeAnna Bennett vs. Justin Kish at flyweight.
Vanderford last appeared at Bellator 275, where he suffered a first-round technical knockout loss to Gegard Mousasi in a middleweight title bout on Feb. 25. Prior to that, Vanderford was victorious in his first 11 professional appearances, including five wins under the Bellator MMA banner.
Adams, meanwhile, scored a unanimous verdict over Khalid Murtazaliev in his promotion debut at Bellator 266. The two-time Dana White’s Contender Series competitor was slated to return to action at Bellator 280 against Lorenz Larkin before withdrawing from the proposed bout.