A high-profile welterweight matchup between Paul Daley and Brennan Ward has been added to Bellator 170 on Jan. 21 in Inglewood, California.
Bellator MMA president Scott Coker broke the news with ESPN.com on Tuesday. The 170-pound matchup will take place on the televised portion of Bellator 170 inside The Forum.
The bout figures to have implications on the welterweight title picture. The belt changed hands earlier this month at Bellator 164, when Douglas Lima knocked out previous champ Andrey Koreshkov in the third round.
"On any given night, Paul Daley can really bring it and Ward is a crowd favorite on the East Coast who I think is a special fighter," Coker said. "We're going to see how far he can go. I think this will be his toughest test to date.
"The welterweight division has really emerged as one of our most exciting weight classes. You have Rory [MacDonald] making his debut in 2017. Koreshkov is still up there. Whoever wins this fight will take a climb up that ladder."
Daley (38-14-2) suffered a unanimous decision loss to the current champion Lima in his last performance. The loss snapped a five-fight win streak.
He was supposed to fight Derek Anderson at Bellator 163 earlier this month, but was pulled from the card at the last minute due to a difficult weight cut.
Ward (14-4), of Waterford, Connecticut, picked up an 86-second knockout over Saad Awad on the same card Daley withdrew from. The 28-year-old has won five of his past six fights.
A light heavyweight bout between Tito Ortiz (18-12-1) and Chael Sonnen (28-14-1) will headline Bellator 170, which airs on Spike TV.
