Bellator returned to London with a welterweight fight pitting Paul Daley against Rory MacDonald serving as the main event of Bellator 179. Stav Economou was originally scheduled to face Karl Etherington in heavyweight bout. However, the bout was cancelled and Economous faced Dan Konecke. Neil Grove and Łukasz Parobiec were expected to fight in a Heavyweight bout. However, the fight was cancelled for undisclosed reasons. Michael Page was scheduled to face Derek Anderson as the co-main event. However, the fight was removed from the card after Page suffered a knee injury.
Bellator 173: McGeary vs. McDermott was held on February 24, 2017 at the SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The event aired live in prime time on Spike TV. The event was originally scheduled to be headlined by a bout between Liam McGeary and Chris Fields. However, on February 20, it was announced that Fields had to withdraw from the match due to injury. The initial replacement for Fields was announced as Bellator newcomer Vladimir Filipovic. However, Filipovic also was pulled from the bout due to visa issues. McGeary eventually faced Bellator newcomer Brett McDermott.
