The welterweight fight between Russian Rustam Khabilov and American Jalil Willis, which was supposed to take place this weekend at the Bellator 293 tournament, was excluded from the event card shortly before the official weigh-in procedure.
The American team claims that the Russian withdrew from the fight.
“The problem is on the side of Khabilov. Jalil was ready to fight,” Willis’ manager, Matt Weibel, wrote on social media.
Rustam Khabilov, 36, was supposed to make his Bellator debut back in 2021 at a tournament in Moscow, but dropped out of the fight with Andrei Koreshkov after contracting the coronavirus, and last year Welshman Lewis Long refused to fight the Russian. The last fight “Tiger” held in November 2019 under the banner of the UFC, defeating his compatriot Sergey Khandozhko by unanimous decision.
Recall that the Bellator 293 tournament will take place on March 31 in Temecula, California, and its main event will be a heavyweight fight between Marcelo Golm and Daniel James.
Source: https://fighttime.ru/news/item/31172-debyut-rustama-khabilova-v-bellator-snova-otmenen.html?rand=19907
