Bellator 166 - A.J. McKee vs. Emmanuel Sanchez

[Kemal]

The first fight is set for December’s Bellator 166 event.

Officials today announced featherweights A.J. McKee (5-0 MMA, 5-0 BMMA) and Emmanuel Sanchez (13-3 MMA, 5-2 UFC) are set as the fight card’s first official matchup.

Bellator 166 takes place Dec. 2 at WinStar World Casino and Resort in Thackerville, Okla.

McKee, the son of MMA vet Antonio McKee, has spent his entire career in Bellator since making his pro debut in April 2015. All of the 21-year-old’s victories, including a recent second-round submission win over Cody Walker at Bellator 160, have come via stoppage.

He now meets Sanchez, a contender who joined Bellator in 2014. The 26-year-old Roufusport fighter won five of his first six fights with the promotion, which included victories over notables such as Justin Lawrence and Daniel Pineda, before suffering a split-decision defeat to Daniel Weichel in July. His past four bouts have all now ended via split decision.

[Kemal]

Bellator 166 main card adds Davis vs. Galvao and Honeycutt vs. Reiter

Bellator 166 is coming together with a pair of bouts today added to the event’s main card.

LC Davis (23-7 MMA, 3-1 BMMA) will face off with Marcos Galvao (17-7-1 MMA, 8-4 BMMA) at bantamweight and Chris Honeycutt (8-1 MMA, 4-1 BMMA) takes on Ben Reiter (17-1-1 MMA, 3-1 BMMA) at middleweight The bouts were announced via a press release from the promotion.

Bellator 166 takes place Friday, Dec. 2 at WinStar World Casino & Resort in Thackerville, Okla. Bellator 167 takes place the following night at the same venue. Both main cards will air on Spike following prelims on MMAjunkie.

Davis is coming off his first loss in the Bellator cage, a unanimous decision loss to Joe Warren in the main event of Bellator 143 in September 2015. Prior to the defeat, he rattled off three straight wins after joining the promotion.

Galvao is in a similar situation, suffering a defeat in his most recent bout and snapping a four-fight winning streak. Galvao came up short in a title bout rematch with Eduardo Dantas at Bellator 156. Prior to that fight, Galvao captured the bantamweight title with a kneebar submission win over Warren.

Honeycutt was considered a top prospect at 185 pounds, but his momentum was slowed considerably when first a bout with Paul Bradley ended in a no-contest before Bradley scored a knockout in the rematch, the first loss of Honeycutt’s career. Following the loss, Honeycutt has rattled off back-to-back unanimous decision wins.

Reiter also rebounded from the first loss of his career recently, taking a unanimous decision win over A.J. Matthews at Bellator 156. Prior to that victory, Reiter was submitted by Francisco France at Bellator 146.

Several prelim bouts were also announced for the event.

With the additions, the Bellator 166 card includes:

MAIN CARD (Spike, 9 p.m. ET)
champ Eduardo Dantas vs. Joe Warren – for bantamweight title
A.J. McKee vs. Emmanuel Sanchez
LC Davis vs. Marcos Galvao
Chris Honeycutt vs. Ben Reiter

PRELIMINARY CARD (7 p.m. ET)
Treston Thomison vs. Ray Wood
Derrick Adkins vs. Chris Jones
Jon Lair vs. Kennedy Nzechukwu
Levi Queen vs. Chance Rencountre
Gregory Babene vs. Emiliano Sodi