Soto-Warren Title Bout Signed for Bellator 27

Bellator Fighting Championships featherweight titleholder Joe Soto will defend his crown against Joe Warren at Bellator 27 on Sept. 2 at the Majestic Theatre in San Antonio. The promotion on Friday made the hotly anticipated matchup official.

Perfect in nine professional appearances, Soto stopped durable Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Diego Saraiva on a first-round cut at Bellator 19 two 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. Warren stands as a formidable obstacle.

“I’m just really excited to get in there and compete against him,” Soto said in a release. “He’s a wrestler just like I am, but I think I can outwrestle him. If he takes me down, I’m better on my back than he is on top. If we stay standing, I think I can outbox him. No matter where the fight goes, I think I’m a much better all-around fighter than he is.”

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. He aims to put the first blemish on Soto’s record.

“We’re both great wrestlers, so I’m guessing we’re going to get in there and beat the crap out of each other,” Warren said. “In the end, I’m going to be taking that belt home with me.”