Kiefer Crosbie vs. Georgi Karakhanyan, Brian Moore vs. Jared Scoggins official for Bellator 263

Bellator gets back on the road later this month, and a pair of fights are official for the preliminary card.

Kiefer Crosbie (8-2 MMA, 4-2 BMMA) is set to take on Georgi Karakhanyan (30-11-1 MMA, 8-9 BMMA) in a lightweight fight at Bellator 263. And Brian Moore (13-7 MMA, 4-3 BMMA) will meet Jared Scoggins (10-1 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) at bantamweight. Bellator officials announced the bookings Thursday.

Bellator 263 takes place July 31 at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., near Los Angeles. The main card airs on Showtime following prelims on MMA Junkie. The event is headlined by a featherweight title fight and grand prix final between champion Patricio Freire and A.J. McKee.

Crosbie will be looking to get back in the win column after a doctor’s stoppage TKO loss to Charlie Leary in October 2020. That setback came on the heels of back-to-back decision wins over Hugo Pereira and Iamik Furtado, both of which came pre-pandemic.

Karakhanyan has won two of his past three fights after consecutive losses to Emmanuel Sanchez and upcoming featherweight title challenger A.J. McKee. Those fights also happened to be after his move to lightweight from 145 pounds. At Bellator 240, he submitted Paul Redmond in the second round. After a split decision loss to Myles Jury in August 2020, he took a split call from Bryce Logan this past November.

Scoggins will make his Bellator debut on the strength of five straight wins. Most recently, Scoggins won CFFC’s vacant bantamweight title with a unanimous decision against Thomas Vasquez. He was set to make his promotional debut at Bellator 250 in October 2020 against Toby Misech, but Misech missed weight and the fight was scrapped. A planned fight against Magomed Magomedov in April was scrapped when Scoggins had to pull out.

Moore will be going after his third straight win. After alternating wins and losses for six fights, including setbacks against McKee and Daniel Weichel, Moore picked up a unanimous decision win over Son Le Binh in May 2019 and knocked out Simone D’Anna at Bellator 247 this past October.

With the additions, the Bellator 263 lineup includes:

• Champ Patricio Freire vs. A.J. McKee – for featherweight title; featherweight grand prix final
• Mads Burnell vs. Emmanuel Sanchez
• Magomed Magomedov vs. Raufeon Stots
• Manny Muro vs. Usman Nurmagomedov
• Brian Moore vs. Jared Scoggins
• Kiefer Crosbie vs. Georgi Karakhanyan