A little more than one year after a motorcycle that left doctors questioning whether he’d be able to walk again, let alone fight, ex-champ Daniel Straus has a date for his return to the Bellator cage.

Straus (28-9 MMA, 11-5 BMMA) will meet Shane Kruchten (12-4 MMA, 0-1 BMMA) in the 155-pound co-main event of Bellator 219, as announced by Bellator president Scott Coker on Twitter this Friday. The event, which takes place March 29 at Pechanga Resort Casino in Temecula, will be headlined by Saad Awad (23-10 MMA, 11-7 BMMA) and Brandon Girtz (15-8 MMA, 7-6 BMMA), also at lightweight.

Awad vs. Girtz will fill in for the original headliner, between ex-title-challenger Lorenz Larkin and former welterweight champion Andrey Koreshkov. Larkin announced his withdrawal from the bout late on Thursday following reports, but offered no reasons.

Both Awad and Girtz are looking to recover from recent losses. Awad was on a solid four-fight winning streak, capped off by a first-round knockout of Ryan Couture, until former UFC champion Benson Henderson took a unanimous decision over him at Bellator 208 last October.

Girtz, in turn, comes off a submission loss to lightweight champion Michael Chandler, in a Bellator 197 headliner that Girtz took on short-notice last April. Girtz, who had to undergo surgery on his shoulder after the match, was scheduled to meet Pedro Carvalho earlier this month, before injury struck his opponent.

In the co-headliner against Kruchten, ex-champ Straus looks to get back on track after the accident and a pair of losses inside the Bellator cage. After losing a rare tetralogy match with Patricio Freire, which also cost him the 145-pound title he’d taken from Freire, Straus suffered a submission loss to Emmanuel Sanchez. Straus had won nine of the 11 bouts that had come before, though, including one against Freire.

Kruchten looks for his first win in the Bellator cage, more than one year after his promotional debut. The 34-year-old featherweight ended up on the unfortunate end of one of Aaron Pico’s brutal body shots less than 40 seconds into their Bellator 192 bout. Kruchten had only lost one of the 13 bouts that came before that.

For more on Bellator 219, visit the MMA Rumors section of the site.