Heavyweights Vitaly Minakov and Javy Ayala posed for photos following the official weigh-ins in Bridgeport on Friday, but won’t be fighting each other tonight. The promotion announced on Saturday that Tim Johnson has stepped in to fight Minakov in tonight’s co-main event.
Johnson was originally scheduled to face short-notice replacement Azunna Anyanwu in the preliminary portion of the card. It’s still unclear why Ayala was pulled from the co-main event bout and whether Anyanwu will be compensated by the promotion.
MMA Fighting reached out to Bellator for a comment on the situation, but has yet receive a response at the time of this writing.