Bellator 73 Heads to Mississippi for Curran-'Pitbull' Featherweight Title Fight

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The location of Bellator's final Summer Series event of 2012 has been revealed. Promotion officials announced Friday evening that Bellator 73 will take place at Harrah's Tunica Hotel and Casino in Tunica Resorts, Miss.

The Aug. 24 event will be headlined by a featherweight title collision between reigning champion Pat Curran and Season 4 tournament winner Patricio Freire. Additionally, the Season 6 bantamweight tournament finals will be decided, as former 132-pound Shooto title challenger Marcos Galvao locks horns with Renovacao Fight Team representative Luis Alberto Nogueira.

Bellator 73 marks the Chicago-based promotion's second trip to Harrah's Tunica. The first took place at Bellator 38 in March 2011. That event saw Tim Carpenter, D.J. Linderman, Richard Hale and Christian M'Pumbu advance to the semifinals of Bellator's Season 4 light heavyweight tournament, a competition that M'Pumbu would eventually win to become Bellator's inaugural 205-pound champion.

The younger of the “Pitbull” brothers, Freire has lost just one fight in his eight-year pro career. The 24-year-old captured the Season 4 featherweight title by knocking out Georgi Karakhanyan and Wilson Reis before outpointing Daniel Straus in May of last year, earning a shot at then-champion Joe Warren in a rematch of their Season 2 tournament finals clash. However, the Brazilian's plans to avenge his lone loss were stalled by a broken hand.

Instead, Curran, the 2011 Summer Series tournament winner, was granted the title shot against Warren. The 24-year-old used superior size and an accurate boxing attack to batter Warren in their March 9 meeting, delivering a devastating knockout in the third round to win the world title. The win marked the fourth straight victory for the former lightweight, who previously captured the Season 2 lightweight crown before dropping a decision to then-champion Eddie Alvarez in a failed title bid.