Alex Polizzi now gets his chance to graduate.
A relative unknown in the Bellator MMA light heavyweight division, the once-beaten 30-year-old will step in as a short-notice replacement for Melvin Manhoef to take on 2000 Olympic silver medalist Yoel Romero in the Bellator 280 co-main event on Friday at Accor Arena in Paris. Polizzi enters the cage with the wind of a three-fight winning streak in his sails. He last appeared at Bellator 276, where he submitted Jose Augusto Azevedo Barros with a rear-naked choke in the third round of their March 12 battle at 205 pounds.