Rich Clementi vs. Alexander Sarnavskiy Kicks Off Bellator Season 7 Lightweight Tourney
By FCF Staff
Bellator Fighting Championship continues to unroll the line-up for its seventh season of action, and today the promotion has announced that a lightweight bout between Rich Clementi and Alexander Sarnavskiy will take place October 19th.
The bout will be one of four, lightweight quarterfinal fights to take place that night, which will also feature Dave Jansen vs. Magomed Saadulaev, Marcin Held vs. Murad Machaev and Ricardo Tirloni vs. Rene Nazare.
The 35 year-old, UFC vet Clementi (44-21) is coming off back-to-back wins and is 3-2 in his last five fights.
“I don’t think I’ve felt this good in a long time and I’m incredibly excited to get going and into this tournament,” Clementi said. “I know Sarnavskiy is coming into this tournament as one of the favorites, but I love the challenge, and I want to start to this tournament off with a bang. Everyone is going to see the Rich Clementi they are used to seeing, and Sarnavskiy is in for a rude awaking on October 19.”
The 23 year-old, Russian prospect Sarnavskiy (20-0) arrives in Bellator having gone 2-0 thus far in 2012.
“The Bellator Tournament will be a difficult test for me,” Sarnavskiy said. “I will train and prepare myself the best I can. I have a huge responsibility to my coach, my manager, my fans and my country. I won’t disappoint them and I want to show them a spectacular performance.”
Bellator 77 will be hosted by The Reading Eagle Theater at The Sovereign Center in Reading, Pennsylvania, and will be broadcast live on MTV 2.