Combat Sambo World Champion Blagoi Ivanov has been matched with a third opponent for Bellator 38. He now faces Will Penn on the under card of Saturday’s event, which will air live on MTV 2 at 7 p.m. ET.
On Monday, Bellator announced that Ivanov would make his promotional debut against John Brown. However, for an unknown reason, he was replaced by journeyman Johnathan Ivey according to a ProMMANow.com report. Then, Ivey was prevented from fighting due to a pending medical suspension. Today, Bellator announced the official weigh-in schedule and included the addition of Penn.
Penn picked up back-to-back wins after dropping his professional debut to Ray Lopez last March. In his last fight, Penn stopped Jason Mills with punches less than three minutes into the first round.
Ivanov is best known for defeating former Pride FC champion Fedor Emelianenko in the semifinals of 2008 World Combat Sambo Championships. He went on to defeat Janosch Stefan to claim a gold medal. In MMA, he holds an unconfirmed 9-0 record. His highest profile fight came against Kazuyuki Fujita in 2009 under the Sengoku banner. Ivanov walked away with a split-decision victory.
The main card of Bellator 38 features the first four bouts of their inaugural light heavyweight tournament. The field includes top prospects Raphael Davis and Nik Fekete as well as Daniel Graice.