Thomson-Villaseca, Karakhanyan-Weichel Set for Bellator 147 in San Jose

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Josh Thomson will fight on home turf in San Jose, Calif., when he takes on Pablo Villaseca in the Bellator 147 headliner.

Promotion officials announced the lightweight matchup on Thursday. Bellator 147 will take place at the San Jose State University Events Center on Dec. 4 and also includes a co-main event matchup pitting Georgi Karakhanyan against Daniel Weichel in a featherweight contest.

Thomson parted ways with the UFC following a three-fight skid earlier this year. The American Kickboxing Academy standout returned to his winning ways in his promotional debut at Bellator 142, as he submitted Mike Bronzoulis with an arm-triangle choke 39 seconds into the third round of their Sept. 19 encounter.

Villaseca has won 10 of his 11 professional outings, including seven inside the distance. His lone setback came in his Bellator debut when he dropped a split decision against Bobby Cooper on June 26.

After a nearly four-year hiatus, Karakhanyan returned to the Scott Coker-led organization in January, when he choked out wrestler Bubba Jenkins at Bellator 132. The victory earned “Insane” the No. 1 contender spot and a title shot against Patricio Freire in June, but the Milennia MMA representative was suffered a knee injury and was forced to withdraw from the bout.

Weichel replaced Karakhanyan at Bellator 138, but fell to Freire via knockout 32 seconds into the round two. The defeat snapped a seven-fight winning streak for Weichel, who is 4-1 under the Bellator banner with a notable triumph over ex-champ Pat Curran.