Former NC State wrestling national champion Darrion Caldwell headlines Bellator 253 tomorrow night. The main card will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network and DAZN, starting at 7 p.m. It's hard to guess but I'd bet Caldwell fights sometime around 7:30-8ish … there are only two main-card fights before him.
Caldwell is 15-3 in his professional career, but is fighting up a weight class (normally fights at 135, which is hard to believe considering he is 5-10) to take part in the organization's Featherweight (145) Grand Prix, which began as a 16-man tourney last fall with the winner earning $1 million. Caldwell's first two fights in the event were a unanimous decision win and submission victory.
He'll take on AJ McKee, who is undefeated in his pro career and still young at just 25. MMAJunkie.com ranks among the top 5 or 6 featherweights in the world (the order of their rankings aren't exactly clear to me), regardless of organization (which means it includes, most notably, the UFC guys). McKee won his first two matches of the tournament with an eight-second knockout and a third-round submission.
This fight was originally supposed to happen June 6, but the pandemic delayed things. Tough test for Caldwell coming up … all sportsbooks have him as the underdog, somewhere between +233 and +265.
Caldwell is 15-3 in his professional career, but is fighting up a weight class (normally fights at 135, which is hard to believe considering he is 5-10) to take part in the organization's Featherweight (145) Grand Prix, which began as a 16-man tourney last fall with the winner earning $1 million. Caldwell's first two fights in the event were a unanimous decision win and submission victory.
He'll take on AJ McKee, who is undefeated in his pro career and still young at just 25. MMAJunkie.com ranks among the top 5 or 6 featherweights in the world (the order of their rankings aren't exactly clear to me), regardless of organization (which means it includes, most notably, the UFC guys). McKee won his first two matches of the tournament with an eight-second knockout and a third-round submission.
This fight was originally supposed to happen June 6, but the pandemic delayed things. Tough test for Caldwell coming up … all sportsbooks have him as the underdog, somewhere between +233 and +265.
