Joe Schilling-Hisaki Kato Middleweight Bout Completes Bellator 139 Main Card

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Middleweight strikers Joe Schilling and Hisaki Kato are set to square off at next month’s Bellator 139.

Bellator officials Monday announced the 185-pound matchup, which will take place June 26 at Kansas Star Arena in Mulvane, Kan.

Schilling-Kato rounds out the four-bout, Spike TV-broadcast main card for Bellator 139 “Kongo vs. Volkov,” which is topped by a heavyweight fight between UFC veteran Cheick Kongo and former titleholder Alexander Volkov. The other main-card matches pit David Rickels against John Alessio at lightweight and Pat Curran against Goiti Yamauchi at featherweight.

A muay Thai stylist who also competes in the Glory kickboxing organization, Schilling has gone 1-1 inside the Bellator cage since returning from a six-year MMA hiatus last year. The 31-year-old Californian, who holds an overall record of 2-4 in MMA competition, scored a highlight-reel knockout of Melvin Manhoef in November before being outpointed by Rafael Carvalho on April 10.

Kato is a karateka who fought all five of his MMA bouts for the Heat organization in his native Nagoya, Japan. The 32-year-old won his first four cage appearances via knockout -- three of them inside the first round -- but was handed his first defeat on March 22, when he was punched out by Henrique Shigemoto.