Warren-Curran, Featherweight Tourney Pairings Official for Bellator 61

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Pat Curran will make his second run at Bellator gold on March 9, as promotion officials Thursday announced that the Summer Series tournament champion will square off with reigning featherweight king Joe Warren at Bellator 61.

The event takes place at The Venue at Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Ind, and the main draw airs live on MTV2 and Epix. The evening’s preliminary offering will stream live on Spike.com immediately prior to the main card broadcast.

The show also kicks off Bellator’s sixth-season featherweight tournament, as all four 145-pound quarterfinal pairings will be featured that night. The bracket sees Marlon Sandro face Roberto Vargas, Ronnie Mann meet Wagnney Fabiano, Alexandre Bezerra lock up with Genair da Silva and Daniel Straus compete against Jeremy Spoon.

A two-time tournament champion, Curran rebounded from a failed lightweight title bid in April against Eddie Alvarez by dropping to 145 pounds for Bellator’s Summer Series. The 24-year-old Illinois resident rattled off three consecutive victories in the tournament, besting Luis Palomino, Ronnie Mann and Marlon Sandro to earn his shot at featherweight champion Warren.

The self-professed “Baddest Man on the Planet,” Warren also dropped in weight last year, entering the Season 5 bantamweight tournament with the intention of becoming Bellator’s first-ever two-division champion. Instead, he was knocked out in the quarterfinals by heavy-handed wrestler Alexis Vila this past September.