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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Bellator Fighting Championships has yet to announce the matchups for the recently completed lightweight tournament field for the organization's second season, but one of the competitors has revealed his first round opponent.
Toby Imada, who the organization was hoping to match up with Jorge Masvidal for a second time following his upset victory during season one, will actually meet up with Ferrid Kheder. He revealed his first round matchup with MMAJunkie.com.
The fight is expected to come to Bellator 15 on April 22nd.
The report states Masvidal did not join the tournament for the second season as he would have needed to sign a contract extension and wasn't willing to commit to further fights outside of the two he has remaining on his contract. He is expected to fight in non-tournament bouts during the second season.
Imada has won nine out of his last ten fights, with the sole loss coming in last year's finals to Eddie Alvarez.
His opponent, Kheder, is a former Judoka who made the move to MMA in 2006. In 21 career fights, he's amassed a 16-5 record, including eleven victories in his last twelve bouts.
The remaining three matchups for the season two tournament have yet to be revealed, though they are expected to be announced this week. The season begins on April 8th, and live events air on Fox Sports Net every Thursday night.
Penick's Analysis: This is a solid first round matchup, and a good test for Imada to kick off the tournament. If he's going to make another run to get a rematch with Alvarez he'll need a hell of a performance to get out of this round against a solid fighter in Kheder. We're just weeks away from this new season, and it's going to be very nice to have MMA action every week in addition to the weekend events.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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