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Alex Lohore v Colin Fletcher Photo Credit: Bellator MMA

Alex Lohoré travels to Dublin, Ireland for the first defence of his BAMMA welterweight championship. He’ll face the Emerald Isle’s own, Richard Kiely.

Ultimate opportunist, Kiely, endeavours to win the promotion’s world championship after just two professional fights.

News of the welterweight title bout was confirmed by SevereMMA on Thursday morning

The fight will feature on BAMMA 32 which takes place on Friday, November 10 inside Dublin’s 3Arena. The event will be a co-promotion between BAMMA and Bellator MMA.

French-born Lohoré (13-1) captured the 170-pound crown on September 15 in London, where he knocked out Nathan “Mr. Bag & Tag” Jones to win gold and put an end to their vitriolic three-year rivalry.

Post-fight, Lohoré was quick to confirm his interest in fighting Kiely, whilst warning his future challenger of the expected outcome. 

“He’s only 2-0 but he’s very experienced with the kickboxing, he’s big as well for a welterweight,” Lohoré told MMA Plus after BAMMA 31 at the SSE Arena Wembley. “So it will be a great fight and we’re going to his hometown, so it will be good to shut him up in his hometown.” 

Kiely (2-0), who persistently hounded Lohoré in the build-up to BAMMA 31, showed little respect to ‘Alex The Bore Lahore’ succeeding his title victory. 

Quick to gain popularity on the Irish MMA scene, Kiely has won both of his BAMMA fights by knockout. Training under John Kavanagh at the famed SBG gym in Dublin, he statistically becomes the least experienced fighter to challenge for a BAMMA world title in the promotion’s eight-year run. 

Despite this, Kiely’s ability to create intrigue through social media, whilst getting under the skin of the majority of BAMMA’s welterweights, has seen him position himself perfectly for this major championship opportunity.

Realistically Lohoré should make easy work of Kiely, but it’s difficult to write off BAMMA’s ultimate opportunist, especially since he will have an incredibly vocal home-field advantage on November 10.

Meanwhile, two other title matches have already been announced for BAMMA 32, with a flyweight title unification fight set between Northern Ireland’s Andy Young and Lonsdale titleholder Daniel Barez. Also, Liverpool’s Tim Barnett defends his Lonsdale lightweight championship against SBG fighter Richie Smullen