Spare a thought for the Bellator match-makers. Having learned that Bellator 173 main event fighter Chris Fields had been forced to withdraw from this Friday’s light heavyweight clash with Liam McGeary (12-1) for medical reasons, the office scrambled to find a short notice replacement and did so in the form of Serbian fighter Vladimir Filipovic.

It was reported today by Peter Carroll of SevereMMA and Newstalk that the promotion have since made another change to the main event fight. UK-based MMA veteran Brett McDermott (7-4) has stepped into the card to replace Filipovic, who was ruled out due to visa issues according to MMAJunkie.

McDermott, nicknamed ‘The Spartan’, is a former professional rugby league player who represented Ireland at international level. He is 2-1 under the Bellator banner, including a knockout win over Oli Thompson, and was most recently seen losing to Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal in Rizin in December 2015.

In addition to the new main event, the co-promoted Bellator 173 and BAMMA 28 card also features SBG Ireland’s James Gallagher vs. Kirill Medvedovsky, Sinead Kavanagh vs. Iony Razafiarison while the BAMMA portion of the evening will be headlined by the clash between former UFC fighters Norman Parke and Paul Redmond.