Douglas Lima and Ben Saunders were originally scheduled to face each other in the season eight welterweight tournament final at the end of March but a hand injury forced the fight to be delayed until the Summer Series.

Bellator rescheduled the fight to take place at Bellator 97 on July 31st in New Mexico but Lima has suffered another injury and the fight has been delayed again.

News of the bout being delayed once against was initially reported by Sherdog and Lima confirmed the injury on Twitter.

“Very unlucky with these back to back injuries but the fight is off for July,” Lima tweeted. “I’m injured again. Hope to get back training in no time.”

Sherdog reported that Lima has torn cartilage his ribs and Lima did not say what the injury was on Twitter that caused him to pull out of the fight. With the fight being off the July 31st card, the fight will most likely take place in season nine and that season will begin on September 7th and run through the end of the year.

The current Bellator 97 card is below and stay tuned to TheMMAReport.com for updates on this upcoming Bellator event.

Michael Chandler (11-0) vs. David Rickels (14-1)

Ben Askren (11-0) vs. Andrey Koreshkov (13-0)

Bellator Light Heavyweight Tournament Finals: TBD vs. TBD

Patricio Pitbull (17-2) vs. Rob Emerson (12-10)