Adversity forces a man to look in the mirror. Such was the case for Rafael Carvalho.
The former Bellator MMA middleweight champion will try to snap a career-worst three-fight losing streak when he meets Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov as part of the Bellator 277 undercard on Friday at the SAP Center in San Jose, California. The Brazilian took the assignment—his first in nearly a year—under less-than-ideal circumstances as a short-notice replacement for Tony Johnson. Desperate times called for desperate measures.
“I had already been keeping up a certain training rhythm,” Carvalho told Sherdog.