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A three-round non-title fight between Bellator lightweight champion Michael Chandler (9-0 MMA, 6-0 BFC) and promotional newcomer Akihiro Gono (32-17-7 MMA, 0-0 BFC) has been added to May's Bellator 67 event.
Bellator officials today announced the headliner.
The event takes place May 4 at Casino Rama in Rama, Ontario, Canada. The night's main card airs on MTV2 (and in high-definition on EPIX). Prelims stream on Spike.com.
When tournaments haven't determined fight-ready No. 1 contenders, Bellator books its champions for non-title "superfights" to keep them busy. Chandler now gets his first such non-title fight.
"I’m just excited to get back into the cage," Chandler stated. "I fought four times in 2011, and I'm ready to get back to work. Gono has beaten some of the best fighters in the sport, and this should be a good test for me."
The Gono matchup is the first fight for Chandler since he upset then-champ and top-10 lightweight Eddie Alvarez in a "Fight of the Year" candidate at Bellator 58. Chandler, a season-four tourney winner, capitalized on his guaranteed title shot and won the belt with a fourth-round submission victory at the November event.
Chandler, a former All-American wrestler at the University of Missouri, is now 9-0 with seven stoppage victories.
He faces his most experienced opponent yet in Gono, a veteran of organizations such as PRIDE, the UFC and World Victory Road/Songoku. Although he's competed at welterweight, he recently dropped to lightweight and since has suffered decision losses to Jadamba Narantungalag and Daisuke Nakamura. The losses snapped his three-fight win streak, which included a late-2009 submission win over Hayato "Mach" Sakurai.
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