How to watch Bellator Champions Series

How to watch Bellator Champions Series – San Diego: Who’s fighting, lineup, start time, broadcast info

Bellator is back this week, and the lightweight title is on the line in Southern California.

Here’s how to watch Bellator Champions Series: San Diego, with a complete lineup and look at the title fight in a city whose name in German means …

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event page for Bellator Champions Series: San Diego.

Broadcast and streaming info

Venue info

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 29: General view of the exterior of Pechanga Arena on opening night of the Tomlin UNITED Tour on March 29, 2022 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Daniel Knighton/Getty Images)

Pechanga Arena is a legendary venue that dates back to 1966. It seats as many as 16,000, depending on the event and configuration. It was known as the San Diego Sports Arena for the majority of its existence, but the current naming rights are owned by the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, which owns the Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula, a regular Bellator location.

Although it was built primarily for sports, the venue is perhaps best known as a favorite tour stop in the 1960s and ’70s for artists like Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Queen, Elvis Presley, the Grateful Dead and Bob Marley. In more recent years, the building has played host to Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, Madonna and Lana Del Rey.

Bellator has been to the venue twice before. Bellator 300 this past fall was the promotion’s first visit there in nearly nine years. At Bellator 131 in November 2014, Tito Ortiz took a split decision from Stephan Bonnar in the main event. In the co-main event, interim lightweight champion Will Brooks knocked out Michael Chandler in the fourth round to win the vacant 155-pound title. The event was, at the time, the highest rated Bellator broadcast on Spike TV.

Lightweight title fight: Usman Nurmagomedov

It took Usman Nurmagomedov (18-0 MMA, 7-0 BMMA) only about 18 months to become a Bellator champion. He’s just 26, and already has beaten three straight former champs. At Bellator 300, he beat former titleholder Brent Primus.

Lightweight title fight: Alexander Shabliy

Alexander Shabliy (24-3), a 31-year-old Russian, has nine straight wins, including his first five Bellator fights. Like Nurmagomedov, he’s got a win over ex-champ Primus – a second-round knockout – and at Bellator 301 this past November, he outworked former champ Patricky Freire to move to 5-0 in Bellator.