Just a few days before Bellator 206: Mousasi vs. MacDonald, the inaugural exclusive Bellator event on DAZN, fighters from the stacked main card took the Bay Area by storm yesterday and left no stone left unturned as they drummed up further excitement for their highly-anticipated battles in the cage this Saturday night at the SAP Center in San Jose.
Headline fighter and current Bellator Welterweight World Champion Rory MacDonald (20-4), who is moving up a weight class for a new middleweight title shot against current champ Gegard Mousasi (43-6-2), visited Day 2 of the Golden State Warriors training camp in Oakland. He was joined by Douglas Lima(29-7), who will be competing against Andrey Koreshkov (21-2) in the opening bout of Bellator’s first-ever Welterweight World Grand Prix, a major component of the first year of the multi-year agreement between Bellator and DAZN. In a meeting of champs, the athletes mixed and mingled on the court, with more than one Warriors player revealing themselves to be diehard MMA fans.
MMA super-fan and Warriors centre Jordan Bell was reluctant to give Rory MacDonald his belt back.
Douglas Lima, Klay Thompson, and Rory MacDonald – champs all around.
Rory MacDonald and his long-time fan, Jonas Jerebko of the Warriors, who wished the Bellator MMA fighter good luck for Saturday and took to social to praise him as someone who “always puts on a show.”
Wanderlei Silva (35-13), who is co-headlining Bellator 206 with the fourth fight in his legendary rivalry against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (37-13), was stationed just further south as a special guest at the San Francisco 49ers practice in San Jose. Joining him were MMA icon Royce Gracie and Josh Thomson, former Strikeforce lightweight world champion who was just announced yesterday as an on-air commentator for DAZN’s exclusive stream of this Saturday’s card. Collectively, the guys chopped it up and – quite literally, in some instances – faced off with Coach Kyle Shanahan, GM John Lynch, and several of the players.
Reuben Foster and Wanderlei Silva face off at Levi’s Stadium.
Royce Gracie, DAZN ambassador and 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman, Wanderlei Silva, and Josh Thomson.
Josh Thomson, 49ers GM John Lynch, Royce Gracie, and Wanderlei Silva.
A legendary square-off between Wanderlei Silva and Royce Gracie on the 49ers field.
Meanwhile, over in Menlo Park, MacDonald’s opponent Gegard Mousasi enjoyed a VIP tour of the Facebook campus and explored his way through the house that Zuckerberg built – including checking out first-hand the new Oculus Rift as well as getting in some “fight” training…old school video game style.
Gegard Mousasi visits the Instagram offices on the Facebook campus.
Gegard Mousasi gets his virtual fight training on with the brand new Oculus Rift 5.
Finally, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson blanketed the entire Bay Area as he promoted the fight, hitting up stops from Sports Byline Radio to Barstool Sports Radio to Wild 94.9 to NBC Bay Area Sports to many, many more – successfully driving more eyeballs to his buzzed-about showdown against long-time rival Silva.
“Rampage” Jackson visits ABC Bay Area with Larry Beil.
…all in a Bay day’s work. The main card portion of the history-making Bellator 206 starts at 10 pm ET on Friday, Sept. 29 at the SAP Center in San Jose and will be live streamed exclusively on DAZN.
More About Bellator 206: Mousasi vs. MacDonald:
Bellator 206 Main Card:
Middleweight World Title Main Event: Gegard Mousasi (43-6-2) vs. Rory MacDonald (20-4)
Heavyweight Co-Main Event: Quinton “Rampage” Jackson (37-13) vs. Wanderlei Silva (35-13)
Welterweight World Grand Prix Main Card Bout: Douglas Lima (29-7) vs. Andrey Koreshkov (21-2)
Featherweight Main Card Bout: Aaron Pico (3-1) vs. Leandro Higo (18-4)
Women’s Strawweight Main Card Bout: Keri Taylor-Melendez (2-0) vs. Dakota Zimmerman (Pro Debut)
Featherweight Preliminary Bout: Gaston Bolanos (3-1) vs. Ysidro Gutierrez (4-2)
Preliminary Card:
160-Pound Catchweight Preliminary Bout: Adam Piccolotti (10-2) vs. James Terry (20-9)
Featherweight Preliminary Bout: Jeremiah Labiano (11-6) vs. Justin Smitley (10-7-1)
Women’s Featherweight Preliminary Bout: Amber Leibrock (3-1) vs. Arlene Blencowe (10-7)
Featherweight Preliminary Bout: Josh San Diego (7-4) vs. Joe Neal (6-3)
175-Pound Catchweight Preliminary Bout: Abraham Vaseau (3-1) vs. DeMarco Villalona (2-3)
Bantamweight Preliminary Bout: Cass Bell (1-0) vs. Ty Costa (3-3)
Bantamweight Preliminary Bout: Isaiah Gonzalez (2-0) vs. Khai Wu (2-1)
Featherweight Preliminary Bout: Jacob Ycaro (1-0) vs. Ignacio Ortiz (1-0)
Featherweight Preliminary Bout: Laird Anderson (Pro Debut) vs. Ahmed Abdelaziz (Pro Debut)
Light Heavyweight Preliminary Bout: Chuck Campbell (Pro Debut) vs. Joseph Ramirez (1-1)
Lightweight Preliminary Bout: Anthony Figueroa Jr. (Pro Debut) vs. Samuel Romero (0-1)
*Fight card subject to change.
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