For the second consecutive week, a Bellator Fighting Championships tournament final was marred by a last-minute postponement.
Lightweights Marcin Held (15-2) and Dave Jansen (18-2) were set to meet at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Ind., on Friday before officials for the state's gaming commission intervened five hours prior to the start of the card.
Held, 20, was pulled because of the casino's 21-and-over policy, Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney said, a move he called "highly unexpected" and "very unusual."
A "higher authority" at the gaming commission overruled what Rebney claimed was agreed upon regarding Held's participation in the event at the casino.
On Thursday, the Pole, who turns 21 in January, was allowed into the casino to make weight.
"We thought we did everything necessary to ensure we covered all the bases and made a series of disclosures to the commission," Rebney said.
Last week, officials for the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board refused to allow Russian Shahbulat Shamhalaev to fight Rad Martinez after he got sick from food poisoning.
"It's been an interesting couple of weeks in terms of 145 and 155 tournament finals," Rebney said.
Both Held-Jansen and Shamhalaev-Martinez have been moved to Bellator's eighth season, which begins in January. Neither bout is likely to take place before the beginning of March.
"I'm not mad, but I am a bit disappointed," Jansen tweeted. "I still get my show money."
