{"id":341742,"date":"2020-02-20T06:49:46","date_gmt":"2020-02-20T14:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=341742"},"modified":"2020-02-20T06:50:02","modified_gmt":"2020-02-20T14:50:02","slug":"rugby-player-james-haskell-confirmed-mma-debut-for-bellator-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/rugby-player-james-haskell-confirmed-mma-debut-for-bellator-london\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby player James Haskell confirmed for MMA debut at Bellator London"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former rugby player James Haskell is set to make his eagerly-anticipated MMA debut at Bellator London on May 16.<\/p>\n<p>The former England international finished his 17-year rugby career in 2019 just before announcing his decision to join the Bellator roster.<\/p>\n<div id=\"thirdparty01\" data-google-query-id=\"CNGxhbmj4OcCFZDDuwgdDqYLOw\">\n<div id=\"google_ads_iframe_\/71347885\/_main_eveningstandard\/es_sport\/es_sport_article_2__container__\">Now he will be putting his MMA training to the test in his first official fight. He will be competing on his home turf at the SSE Arena in Wembley. His opponent has not been confirmed but is expected to be announced in the upcoming weeks.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The ex-Wasps and Northampton Saints flanker won 77 caps for his country and believes he has what it takes to pull off the MMA transition.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cI wouldn\u2019t have agreed to it if I didn\u2019t believe I could pull it off,\u201d Haskell said (via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.standard.co.uk\/sport\/james-haskell-mma-debut-fight-confirmed-a4366886.html\">Standard Sport.<\/a>) \u201cMy coaches are going to tell me what to do. It\u2019s about them formulating a plan, what is going to work for me and what isn\u2019t going to work for me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Haskell has been an eager learner of the MMA craft and joined the MMA London Shootfighters gym almost a decade ago to improve his athletic abilities. It is also the home of Bellator talents Michael &#8220;Venom&#8221; Page and Mike Shipman. He credits his gym for teaching him everything he needs to know.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are specialists, I am excited to see what they can do with me and they will dictate everything,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I don\u2019t really have an opinion for once in my life which is quite nice.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Haskell will be sharing the same card as Irish talent, <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/james-gallagher-calls-nick-diaz-interview-scary-urges-him-to-stay-retired\/\">James Gallagher<\/a> who will be fighting UK fighter Cal Ellenor in a bantamweight bout. Their anticipated matchup has been put on hold twice due to injury.<\/p>\n<p>The rugby star joins the heavyweight division currently championed by Ryan Bader, who has held the belt since January 2019.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Do you think the James Haskell has what it takes to become a contender in the Bellator heavyweight division?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>BJPENN.com<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0on 2\/20\/2020.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former rugby player James Haskell is set to make his eagerly-anticipated MMA debut at Bellator London on May 16. The former England international finished his 17-year rugby career in 2019 just before announcing his decision to join the Bellator roster. Now he will be putting his MMA training to the test in his first official [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54472,"featured_media":341757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[44,66789],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Rugby player James Haskell confirmed for MMA debut at Bellator London | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The former England international rugby player, James Haskell has MMA debut confirmed on his home-turf at Bellator London.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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