Spiritwolf, ‘El Cucui’ Agree to Meet at Bellator 35

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Crowd-pleasing Californians Waachiim Spiritwolf and Jaime Jara are set to square off as part of the undercard for Bellator Fighting Championships 35 on March 5 at the Tachi Palace Hotel and Casino in Lemoore, Calif.

Sherdog.com learned of the matchup on Sunday from a source with knowledge of the situation. Both men have verbally agreed to the fight, though bout agreements have not yet been finalized.

Bellator 35 will mark the first event of the promotion’s fourth season, as well as Bellator’s debut broadcast on its new cable home, MTV2. While the company recently confirmed the March 5 date in Lemoore, it has yet to announce any matchups for the show. Sherdog.com learned in January that the event could host a number of welterweight tournament quarterfinals; on Friday, MMAJunkie.com reported a possible non-title affair between women’s 115-pound champion Zoila Frausto and Karina Hallinan.

The hard-nosed Spiritwolf will look to halt the skid on which he ended 2010. After earning wins against Fernando Bettega and Crafton Wallace in the first half of the year, the 34-year-old Fresno native dropped a September decision to former International Fight League standout Delson Heleno. In his October debut for Strikeforce, Spiritwolf came up just short after 15 minutes against the unbeaten Billy Evangelista.

Most recently, Spiritwolf’s anticipated November scrap with Dream welterweight champion Marius Zaromskis was cut short after only six seconds, when Zaromskis accidentally poked Spiritwolf in the eye. After his Bellator appearance, Spiritwolf is booked to face Phil Collins at Tachi Palace Fights 9 on May 5.

Jara, 41, has spent the bulk of his career competing for the California-based Gladiator Challenge promotion, where he has held titles in four different weight classes: welterweight, middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight. The heavily-tattooed fighter known as “El Cucui” (“The Boogeyman”) is perhaps best known for snapping the 11-fight unbeaten streak of “Arm Collector” Givanildo Santana in their 2008 EliteXC bout.

Jara holds an impressive career mark of 29-8, with 26 wins by way of knockout or submission. He opened 2010 with four straight stoppage wins -- including a knockout of previously unbeaten Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Felipe Fogolin -- before running into Jay Silva, who punched Jara out in just 33 seconds at Tachi Palace Fights 7.

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