A lightweight clash between Adam Piccolotti and Mansour Barnaoui will serve as the main event for Bellator 287.
Promotion officials announced the pairing on Wednesday. Bellator 287 takes place at Allianz Cloud Arena in Milan, Italy on Oct. 29 and will see Fabian Edwards face Charlie Ward in the evening’s middleweight co-headliner. Two other contests round out the main draw: Saul Rogers vs. Tim Wilde at lightweight and Justin Gonzales vs. Andrew Fisher at featherweight. The main card will air on Showtime in the United States at 3 p.m. ET/noon PT, while prelims stream on the Bellator MMA YouTube channel, the Showtime Sports YouTube channel and Pluto TV beginning at 11:30 a.m. ET/8:30 a.m. PT.
The announced preliminary card is as follows: Davy Gallon vs. Daniele Scatizzi at lightweight; Simon Biyong vs. Dragos Zubko at light heavyweight; Alfie Davis vs. Thibault Gouti at lightweight; Chiara Penco vs. Manuela Marconetto at strawweight; Yves Landu vs. Walter Cogliandro at featherweight; Costello van Steenis vs. Kamil Oniszczuk at middleweight; Niocolo Solli vs. Bourama Camara at welterweight and Steven Hill vs. Walter Pugliesi at middleweight.
The 33-year-old Piccolotti kicked off his 2022 campaign with a unanimous decision triumph against Georgi Karakhanyan at Bellator 274 on Feb. 19. “The Bomb” has been with the California-based promotion since 2015, compiling an 8-4 mark during his tenure.
France’s Barnaoui will enter his Bellator debut on a seven-fight winning streak. “The Afro-Samurai” has enjoyed plenty of success in other regional promotions, capturing titles in Road FC, M-1 Challenge and BAMMA. The 6-foot-tall Paris native owns a 19-4 career record and has finished all but one of his victories inside the distance. The losses on his resume are notable: Mateusz Gamrot, Islam Makhachev, Kevin Lee and Ivan Buchinger.
“Fans can be expecting that a true warrior is coming to Bellator, and I am motivated to win all my matches in impressive style,” said Barnaoui in a release. “My style is hard-hitting and tight submissions. I am a finisher: that's my style.”
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