For the second time in 48 hours, Bellator 173 headliner Liam McGeary has a new opponent for Friday’s card. On Monday, Bellator officials announced that Chris Fields had been forced out of the Bellator 173 main event against former light heavyweight champion McGeary (11-1 MMA, 8-1 BMMA) and would be replaced by promotional newcomer Vladimir Filipovic (8-2 MMA, 0-0 BMMA). But today, Filipovic is out, too. Stepping up on two days’ notice to take his place will be Brett McDermott (7-4 MMA, 0-0 BMMA), who like Filipovic will be making his promotional debut. A Bellator official confirmed the change to MMAjunkie today and said visa issues for Filipovic were the culprit for taking him off the card. The news of McDermott’s short-notice assignment first was reported by SevereMMA’s Peter Carroll
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