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Rafael Lovato Jr. meets John Salter at Bellator 198 near Chicago

The lineup for Bellator’s return to Chicagoland continues to grow with the addition of a middleweight fight.

Rafael Lovato Jr. (7-0 MMA, 3-0 BMMA) is set to take on John Salter (15-3 MMA, 5-0 BMMA) at Bellator 198. A promotion official confirmed the booking to MMAjunkie today following an initial report from MMAFighting.com.

Bellator 198 will take place April 28 at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill., just outside Chicago. The main card will air on Paramount following prelims on MMAjunkie. The headliner is an opening-round heavyweight tournament fight between Fedor Emelianenko and Frank Mir.

Lovato Jr., a renowned jiu-jitsu player with multiple world titles, will put his unbeaten record on the line against Salter. After winning and defending Legacy FC’s middleweight title in 2016, the Oklahoma-based 34-year-old signed with Bellator for a 2017 debut.

And that debut could not have gone much better. He stopped Charles Hackmann in just 13 seconds at Bellator 174 in Thackerville, Okla. His follow-up was against a little stiffer competition, but he took out Mike Rhodes in the first round with a rear-naked choke. In December at Bellator 189, he outworked Chris Honeycutt for a unanimous decision – the first time he had to go the distance in his MMA career.

John Salter

Salter will bring a seven-fight winning streak into the bout with Lovato Jr., including a perfect 5-0 start to his Bellator tenure. All five of Salter’s Bellator wins have been stoppages, including the past four in a row in the first round.

He debuted with the organization at Bellator 132 and submitted Dustin Jacoby in the second round. After that, he choked out former champ Brandon Halsey in the first round at Bellator 153. Since then, he’s had a TKO of Claudio Annicchiarico in Italy, choked Kendall Grove unconscious at Bellator 181 and stopped Jason Radcliffe in less than two minutes with a rear-naked choke at Bellator 188 in Israel in November.

With the addition, the Bellator 198 lineup now includes:

  • Fedor Emelianenko vs. Frank Mir – Bellator heavyweight grand prix quarterfinal
  • Emmanuel Sanchez vs. Sam Sicilia
  • Neiman Gracie vs. Javier Torres
  • Rafael Lovato Jr. vs. John Salter

For more on Bellator 198, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.

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