Ex-Flyweight Queen Juliana Velasquez Among Additions to Bellator 301 Preliminary Card

Former flyweight champion Juliana Velasquez will return to action for the first time in nearly a year when she meets Paula Cristina dos Santos Silva on the Bellator 301 preliminary draw.

Promotion officials announced the bout on Monday. Three other prelims were also confirmed for the event: Keri Melendez vs. Sabriye Sengul at flyweight; Archie Colgan vs. Pieter Buist at lightweight and Matheus Mattos vs. Richard Palencia at bantamweight.

Bellator 301 takes place at Wintrust Arena in Chicago on Nov. 17 and is headlined by a welterweight title tilt pitting Yaroslav Amosov against Jason Jackson. In the co-main event, Sergio Pettis will square off with Patrick Mix in a bantamweight championship unification bout. The main card airs on Showtime at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, while prelims stream at the Bellator MMA YouTube channel, the Showtime Sports YouTube channel and Pluto TV beginning at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT.

Velasquez, who will turn 37 in October, is coming off back-to-back losses to Liz Carmouche in flyweight title bouts, the most recent of which occurred this past December. The Team Nogueira representative began her professional tenure with nine consecutive triumphs — including seven under the Bellator banner. She captured 125-pound gold with a five-round verdict over Ilima-Lei Macfarlane at Bellator 254 and defended the strap once in a split-decision triumph against Denise Kielholtz at Bellator 262.

Anchored at Nova Uniao, dos Santos Silva has lost two of her last three professional outings. She made her promotional debut at Bellator 296, where she dropped a decision to Kielholtz on May 12.