Getty
Featuring two title fights–Rory MacDonald vs Neiman Gracie and Dillon Danis vs Max Humphrey–and an anticipated bout between former UFC legends Chael Sonnen and Lyoto Machida, Bellator 222 will take place at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Friday.
The prelims start at 6:30 p.m. ET and the main card starts at 10 p.m. ET. Neither will be televised on regular cable in the United States, but you can watch all the fights live via DAZN, a combat sports-based streaming service that has exclusive coverage to over a hundred fight nights (including all of Canelo Alvarez, Gennady Golovkin and Anthony Joshua’s fights) per year and all future Bellator events.
DAZN has two different options for signing up:
You can start a monthly subscription of DAZN for $19.99 right here. It’s automatically renewed at that price each month, but you’re able to cancel anytime.
Or you can start a yearly subscription for $99.99 right here. Obviously, if you plan on keeping DAZN long-term, this is the far superior value and better long-term investment, as it comes out to about $8.33 per month.
Once you’ve signed up for DAZN, you can watch all the Bellator 222 fights live on your computer via DAZN.com, or on your phone, tablet, smart TV, Roku, Xbox One, or other streaming device via the DAZN app.
And if you can’t watch live, you’ll be able to watch the fight on-demand via DAZN, as well.
Bellator 222 Preview
The Bellator 222 card features a pair of championship bouts: Darrion Caldwell will look to defend his bantamweight title against Kyoji Horiguchi and, in the main event, welterweight champ Rory MacDonald will take on Neiman Gracie in what will also serve as a Bellator Welterweight World Grand Prix semifinals bout.
MacDonald claimed his belt from Douglas Lima via unanimous decision at Bellator 192 in January 2018. His next time out, he attempted to become a two-weight champ, falling to the elbows and punches of middleweight titleholder Gegard Mousasi eight months later at Bellator 206.
In his return to welterweight, MacDonald advanced to the Grand Prix semis with a draw against Jon Fitch in the quarterfinals.
Gracie told Bloody Elbow that he noticed some exploitable holes in MacDonald’s clash with Fitch.
“I saw a couple,” Gracie said. “The difference between Jon Fitch and I is if I’m able to get Rory down, the way he did, I’ll go for finishes on the ground. When Fitch gets people on the ground, he likes to hold on and wait for the time to pass.”
Light heavyweights Chael Sonnen and Lyoto Machida, a former UFC champ, will square off between the pair of title fights.
Both former UFC stars are relatively new to the promotion: Machida is 1-0 with Bellator; Sonnen is 2-2 and coming off a 1-1 stint at heavyweight.
“I was a little bit concerned about my first fight (in Bellator) because, as a fighter, you never know,” Machida said, according to MMA Junkie. “When you step into a different cage sometimes you can feel the pressure. My fight was against a very tough opponent, Rafael Carvalho, who’s a former middleweight champion. Now I can’t wait to step in there again.”
Bellator 222 Main Card
Rory MacDonald (champion) vs. Neiman Gracie, welterweight
Lyoto Machida vs. Chael Sonnen, light heavyweight
Darrion Caldwell (champion) vs. Kyoji Horiguchi, bantamweight
Dillon Danis vs. Max Humphrey, catchweight of 175 lbs.
Eduardo Dantas vs. Juan Archuleta, bantamweight
Ricky Bandejas vs. Patrick Mix, bantamweight
Bellator 222 Preliminary Card
Aaron Pico vs. Adam Borics, featherweight
Brandon Polcare vs. Brandon Medina, flyweight
Mike Kimbel vs. Sebastian Ruiz, bantamweight
Heather Hardy vs. Taylor Turner, women’s flyweight
Haim Gozali vs. Gustavo Wurlitzer, welterweight
Phil Hawes vs. Michael Wilcox, middleweight
Kastriot Xhema vs. Whitney Francois, catchweight of 165 lbs.
John Beneduce vs. Kenny Rivera, featherweight
Robson Gracie vs. Oscar Vera, welterweight
Rena Kubota vs. Lindsey VanZandt, catchweight of 112 lbs.
Valerie Loureda vs. Larkyn Dasch, women’s flyweight