Daniel Straus Injured, Bellator Searching for Replacement to Face Pat Curran

A broken hand will keep Daniel Straus from competing for the Bellator featherweight title on April 4 against champion Pat Curran.

Bellator officials confirmed to Bleacher Report on Tuesday that Straus was indeed out for his upcoming bout against Curran, scheduled for Bellator 95 in Atlantic City, NJ.  The news of the change was first reported by MMAJunkie.com.

Daniel Straus had been waiting for a shot at Curran since winning the Bellator Season 6 featherweight tournament.  His wait was delayed after Curran suffered a broken orbital bone in training that pushed back his fight with Patricio "Pitbull" Freire that finally took place in January at the initial Bellator card on Spike TV.

While waiting for Curran to get healthy, Straus stayed busy taking out former UFC fighter Alvin Robinson in his home state of Ohio last October at Bellator 78.

Unfortunately, now Straus will have to wait even longer to finally get his crack at Curran after suffering the broken hand.

As for the champion, Curran was expected to make his second title defense in 2013 against Straus in April as Bellator continues to run featherweight tournaments to line up more contenders.

Bellator officials also confirmed that they are currently working on a potential new opponent for Curran to face on April 4 at Bellator 95, but no decisions have been made at this time.

Curran won the belt in early 2012 with a blistering knockout over former champion Joe Warren before defeating Freire in January.

The Bellator featherweight title picture is becoming crowded because of injuries, however, first to Curran and now to Straus. 

There is currently a featherweight tournament happening during this current Bellator season, not to mention the recent win by Shahbulat Shamhalaev, who earned the next shot at the featherweight title when he knocked out Rad Martinez just last week at Bellator 90.

Damon Martin is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report