Andreas Spang replaces injured Bruno Santos in Bellator 66 tournament semifinals

Brian Rogers (9-3 MMA, 2-1 BFC) has a new opponent for Friday's Bellator 66 event and his middleweight-tournament-semifinal bout.

Bellator officials today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that original opponent Bruno Santos (13-0 MMA, 1-0 BFC) has suffered a "major shoulder injury" and has scratched from the card.

Stepping in his place is Andreas Spang (7-1 MMA, 0-0 BFC), a Swedish striker who's recently competed with bigger organizations such as Strikeforce and MFC.

Bellator 66 takes place Friday at the I-X Center in Cleveland. The event's main card airs on MTV2 (and in high-definition on EPIX) while preliminary-card fights stream on Spike.com. The tournament matches, as well as an Eddie Alvarez vs. Shinya Aoki headliner, are part of the main card.

Spang, a former pro boxer and kickboxer who made his MMA debut in 2008, is now based out of Las Vegas. The Skip Kelp-trained fighter most recently competed in November at Strikeforce Challengers 20, where he scored a first-round TKO of Willie Parks. The 33-year-old has now posted five stoppages (two knockouts and three submissions) in seven career wins, which included a quick guillotine-choke victory over Cody Krahn (10-3 at the time) at MFC 31.

Rogers, meanwhile, punched (well, kneed) his ticket to the semifinals with a stunning flying-knee KO of Vitor Vianna at Bellator 61. Rogers, a northern-Ohio fighter who fights close to home, is now 8-1 over his nine fights, and the lone defeat came to Alexander Shlemenko in the season-five tourney semis. Rogers' past eight wins have come via knockout.

In the other semifinal bout, Maiquel Falcao (29-4 MMA, 1-0 BFC) takes on Vyacheslav Vasilevsky (16-1 MMA, 1-0 BFC). The two winners meet in the tourney finale at Bellator 70 on May 25.

http://mmajunkie.com/news/28271/andreas-spang-replaces-injured-bruno-santos-in-bellator-66-tournament-semifinals.mma

Yeah that sucks Santos is out but not too big a deal. That got a decent prospect replacement who has a win with SF. Hopefully Rogers smashes him quick to get to the finals. Slava vs. Falcao is the MW fight I can't wait to see. This next card is the best ever for Bellator. LW semis, MW semis, Attila Vegh (awesome new LHW signing), Vantinnen (awesome new LHW signing), and Aoki vs. Alvarez. Card is great with or w/o Santos.