Eddie Alvarez will defend his Bellator lightweight championship against season-two tournament champion Pat Curran. The fight will be part of Bellator 39, which takes place on April 2.
Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney confirmed the fight to MMAFighting on Wednesday.
Last year, Curran defeated Mike Ricci, Roger Huerta and Toby Imada to surprisingly claim the season-two Bellator lightweight tournament. In doing so, he also earned himself a title shot against Alvarez. However, Curran suffered a shoulder injury and could not compete.
Instead, Alvarez faced off against Huerta in a non-title fight. The champion was awarded the victory when the ring-side physician stopped the fight after round two.
Alvarez has now won six-straight fights since submitting to Shinya Aoki on New Year’s Eve in 2008. He defeated Greg Loughran, Eric Reynolds and Toby Imada to win the Bellator lightweight championship. Since then, he defeated Katsunori Kikiuno at Dream 12 and scored non-title wins over Huerta and Josh Neer.