Askren kicking Douglas Lima (photo via Bellator.com)

By FCF Staff

Bellator has announced that its welterweight champ Ben Askren will take on recent tourney winner Andrey Koreshkov at the promotion’s upcoming July 31st event in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. The event will be hosted by the Santa Ana Star Center and will be broadcast on SPIKE.

Askren (11-0) hasn’t competed since January when he stopped Karl Amoussou at Bellator 86. Prior to that the renowned wrestler handed Douglas Lima a unanimous decision last August.

“I’m really looking forward to getting back into that cage and putting on a show,” Askren said in a press release from the promotion. “I feel like I’ve continued to mature and get better in every one of my fights, and July 31st should be no different. I don’t think Andrey has any ability to stop my wrestling and ground attack, so this will be another successful title defense.”

Koreshkov (13-0) is coming off wins over Jordan Smith, Marius Zaromskis and most recently Lyman Good to entrench a fight with Askren.

“I’ll be 110% ready for this fight,” Koreshkov said. “I’ll make sure that Askren’s tactics to put everybody in the audience to sleep won’t work this time. Instead, I’ll keep everybody entertained by putting him to sleep.”

The July 31st card will also feature the finals for the promotion’s latest welterweight tourney, as Douglas Lima (24-5) will take on Ben Saunders (16-5-2). Lima knocked out Saunders the first time they met in 2011.

Featherweight Patricio “Pitbull” Freire (17-2) will also be in action that night and will fight UFC vet Rob Emerson (12-10).