Bellator 218 Receives New Main Card Bout After Injury, Car Accident

Friday’s Bellator 218 main card has a new fight after a couple unfortunate occurrences forced the promotion to do some restructuring.

A middleweight clash between Nobert Novenyi and Will Lavine has been elevated to the main card, Sherdog.com confirmed with Bellator officials on Tuesday. Mike Shipman vs. Hracho Darpinyan was originally scheduled for the main card, but the bout was canceled after Shipman was forced to withdraw due to injury.

Then, a heavyweight clash between Jeremy Hardy and Rudy Schaffroth was set for the main draw until Hardy was involved in a car accident. That paved the way for Novenyi-Lavine to receive feature billing. MMAjunkie.com was first to report the changes.

Novenyi is 3-0 as a professional, including a first-round submission of Mehmet Yueksei at Bellator 196. Lavine, meawhile is 1-1 but hasn’t competed since 2017, a year that included a loss to Dominic Garcia at Bellator 171.

Bellator 218 takes place at WinStar World Casino and Resort in Thackerville, Okla., and is headlined by a rematch between Emmanuel Sanchez and Georgi Karakhanyan. The main card, which airs on Paramount Network and DAZN at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT, will also include a heavyweight scrap between Linton Vassell and Valentin Moldavsky as well as a middleweight showdown pitting Anatoly Tokov against Gerald Harris.