A welterweight bout between Ed Ruth and Laszlo Furko is the final addition to April’s Bellator 196 main-card lineup.
A Bellator official today revealed the matchup between Ruth (4-0 MMA, 4-0 BMMA) and Furko (6-3 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) to MMAjunkie.
Bellator 196 will take place April 6 at Budapest Sports Arena in Budapest, Hungary, and will air on Paramount via same-day delay.
Ruth, a three-time NCAA collegiate wrestling champion, started off his MMA career in a 192-pound catchweight bout. Since then he’s slowly inched down to the middleweight division, but at Bellator 196 will test his luck at welterweight for the first time.
After his successful career in wrestling, “Easy Ed” has made a relatively smooth transition to MMA. Ruth, 27, won all four of his fights by TKO, including a second-round finish of UFC veteran Chris Dempsey in his most recent bout at Bellator 186 in November.
Looking to pull off what would be a sizable upset against Ruth is Furko, a Hungarian fighter who will make his Bellator debut at the event. The 28-year-old has won three of his past four fights by first-round stoppage and has finished his opponent inside the distance in all of his career wins.
Also confirmed for the Bellator 196 lineup is a lone preliminary-card matchup in the middleweight division pitting Norbert Novenyi Jr. (2-0 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) against Mehmet Yueksel (2-3 MMA, 0-0 BMMA).
The finalized Bellator 196 card now includes:
MAIN CARD (Paramount)
- Benson Henderson vs. Roger Huerta
- Adam Borics vs. Manuel Gaxhja
- Denise Kielholtz vs. Lena Ovchynnikova
- Giorgio Belsanti vs. Brian Moore
- Laszlo Furko vs. Ed Ruth
Full story here: Unbeaten Ed Ruth drops to welterweight, booked for Bellator 196 main card