The Rookies: Bellator 300

Considerable interest surrounds the arrival of Slim Trabelsi.

The 2016 Olympic qualifier in freestyle wrestling will be one of five Bellator MMA rookies on the Bellator 300 docket when he makes his promotional debut opposite Davion Franklin in a featured heavyweight prelim on Saturday at Pechanga Arena in San Diego. Trabelsi created headlines a little more than a year ago when he was signed by the Ultimate Fighting Championship, booked for a UFC 280 clash against Parker Porter and subsequently released due to a contract squabble between managers Ali Abdelaziz and Fernand Lopez. It appears as though Bellator was there to pick up the pieces.

“I can’t wait to get into the Bellator cage and mix it up with their heavyweights,” Trabelsi said in a press release announcing his signing with the Scott Coker-led company. “Bring me your best, and I will smash everyone.”

Trabelsi, 30, now must prove he can back up his considerable hubris with results. The undefeated Tunisian has trained at the American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose, California, the MMA Factory in Paris and American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida. Trabelsi last appeared on Sept. 2, 2022, when he put away Azamat Nuftillaev with second-round punches and seized the vacant Ares Fighting Championship heavyweight title in the AFC 8 co-main event. The win moved him to 5-0 as a pro and set the stage for his jump to a bigger pond.

Lorrany Santos and Jackie Cataline are set to join Trabelsi as promotional newcomers when they collide in a women’s featherweight battle on the undercard.

Santos, 26, enters the cage on the strength of a six-fight winning streak, having captured titles in the Favela Kombat and Mr. Cage Championship organizations. She operates out of Russao Muay Thai in Itaborai, Brazil, where she hones the skills that have turned her into one of South America’s more promising prospects at 145 pounds. A decorated amateur wrestler and multiple-time Olympic hopeful, Cataline failed to nail down a spot on the Professional Fighters League global roster due to mixed results on the PFL Challenger Series. The 35-year-old Millennia MMA product finds herself reeling after back-to-back losses pushed her back to the .500 mark. Cataline last competed under the Tuff-N-Uff banner on July 14, when she succumbed to third-round elbow strikes from Taylor Guardado.

Meanwhile, LUX Fight League champion Sergio Cossio breaks out of the Mexican regional scene and draws his first Bellator assignment opposite the unbeaten Jesse Roberts in a three-round lightweight tilt. Anchored at the Inv1ktus Durango camp, Cossio has rattled off seven consecutive victories, six of them finishes. He last appeared at on Dec. 9, when he prompted a fifth-round corner stoppage against Fernando Martinez in the LUX Fight League 029 headliner.

Finally, Escondido Fight Club rep Alberto Garcia gets his first chance to prove himself in Bellator when he meets Bobby Seronio III across three rounds at 135 pounds. Garcia has not fought since he took a unanimous decision from Miguel Peimbert at a Gladiator Challenge show on April 23, 2022.