Welterweight champion Yaroslav Amosov will not be competing at Bellator 281.
Amosov, a native of Ukraine, has opted to stay in his home country amid war with Russia and withdrew from his May 13 headliner against Michael Page at Bellator 281, the promotion announced Wednesday.
Stepping in to replace Amosov (26-0 MMA, 7-0 BMMA) will be Logan Storley, who meets Page for the interim welterweight title at The OVO Arena, Wembley, promotion officials announced Wednesday morning.
“Like the rest of the world, we’ve been shocked by the tragic events in Ukraine and the thoughts of everyone at Bellator MMA are with Yaroslav and all the Ukrainian people during this time,” Bellator president Scott Coker said in a statement. “We wish he and his family the best and look forward to seeing him return safely to happier times, both inside and out of the Bellator cage.”
Storley (13-1 MMA, 8-1 BMMA) is fresh off a big win over Neiman Gracie at Bellator 274 last month, which served as the promotion’s first five-round, non-title headliner. The standout wrestler’s lone loss came at the hands of Amosov and although he won’t get his desired wish to rematch him, he’ll get an opportunity to compete for a portion of the welterweight gold.
Since suffering his first-career loss to Lima in the Bellator grand prix semifinals in May 2019, Page (20-1 MMA, 16-1 BMMA) has won six fights in a row. He was able to avenge his knockout loss to Lima in his most recent outing last October when he edged him out at Bellator 267 in London.
With the change, the Bellator 281 lineup includes:
- Michael Page vs. Logan Storley – for interim welterweight title
- Jason Jackson vs. Douglas Lima
- Fabian Edwards vs. Lyoto Machida
- Paul Daley vs. Andrey Koreshkov
- Denise Kielholtz vs. Kana Watanabe
- Simon Biyong vs. Luke Trainer
- Daniel Weichel vs. Robert Whiteford
- Alfie Davis vs. Tim Wilde
- Kate Jackson vs. Elina Kallionidou
- Oliver Enkamp vs. Mark Lemminger
- Andrew Fisher vs. Attila Korkmaz
- Lee Chadwick vs. Maciej Rozanski
- Arunas Andriuskevicus vs. David Trallero
- Lanchana Green vs. Chiara Penco
