By FCF Staff

Bellator MMA continues to confirm the line-up for its upcoming season and its move to SPIKE TV, and today the promotion announced that the next lightweight tourney will begin January 31st in Mount Pleasant, Michigan.

The opening round match-ups will feature Guillaume DeLorenzi (10-1) vs. Patricky “Pitbull” Freire (10-4), Lloyd “Cupcake” Woodard (12-2) vs. David Rickels (11-1) and Thiago Michel (11-3) vs. Alexander “Tiger” Sarnavskiy (21-1).

The tournament’s fourth quarterfinal bout is expected to be announced soon.

“This is just nasty matchup that’s going to be a war,” Rickels was quoted saying in a press release from the promotion. “Cupcake is a guy that likes to throw down, and come right at you, and like you saw in my fight against Amoussou, I don’t get intimidated by anyone, and certainly not by a guy named cupcake.”

“All I can say is the mountain man from Montana is going to come to Michigan and show this “Caveman” a mountain main ass whooping,” Woodard said. “Fighting on Spike is going to be an incredible experience, and I just can’t wait to get back into that Bellator cage, and make a run through this tournament.”

The January 31st event will be hosted by the Soaring Eagle Casino and will be broadcast live on SPIKE.