Vinicius “Spartan” Queiroz is out of the heavyweight tournament at Bellator 96
The injury plague is not exclusive to the UFC. This Tuesday, the eve of the Bellator 96 weigh-in, Brazilian heavyweight Vinicius Spartan was removed from the event that will kick off the organization's 2013 Summer Season.
Spartan suffered a knee injury. Bellator acted quickly and has already announced Ryan Martinez as a replacement for the Brazilian. Martinez will face Rich Hale, a two-time tournament runner-up, once as a light heavyweight and once as a heavyweight.
Martinez had been training with King mo Lawal and Roy Nelson already knowing that he could replace one of the four fighters scheduled for the tournament that starts this Thursday. The Bellator president was not concerned about the last-minute drop:
“Ryan is a strong candidate in the heavyweight category,” said the manager. “He was scheduled to compete in the next heavyweight tournament, but we paid him to make weight here if he had to fight for a reason like this,” added Rebney.
Bellator 96 will feature the semifinals of the heavyweight and light heavyweight tournaments. In addition to Martinez-Hale, Vitaly Minakov vs Ron Sparks completes the heavyweight bracket. In the lower division, King mo Lawal faces Seth Petruzelli in the main fight, while Brazilian Renato Babalu will try to get into the final against American Jacob Noe.
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