Bellator 297: Nemkov vs. Romero is an upcoming mixed martial arts event produced by Bellator MMA that will take place on June 16, 2023, at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois, United States.
Fight Card
Main Card (Showtime)
Light Heavyweight Vadim Nemkov (c) vs. Yoel Romero Light Heavyweight Championship
Bantamweight Sergio Pettis (c) vs. Patrício Pitbull Bantamweight Championship
Light Heavyweight Corey Anderson vs. Phil Davis
Heavyweight Daniel James vs. Gökhan Saricam
Preliminary Card (Youtube/Pluto TV)
Welterweight Kyle Crutchmer vs. Bobby Nash
Lightweight Gadzhi Rabadanov vs. Pieter Buist
Welterweight Jaleel Willis vs. Ramazan Kuramagomedov
Light Heavyweight Karl Moore vs. Alex Polizzi
Heavyweight Wladmir Gouvea vs. Gabriel Sayeg
Lightweight Archie Colgan vs. Emmanuel Sanchez
Lightweight Mike Hamel vs. Shamil Nikaev
Middleweight Norbert Növényi Jr. vs. Kamil Oniszczuk
Featherweight Timur Khizriev vs. Richie Smullen
Middleweight Jordan Newman vs. Matthew Perry
Featherweight Cody Law vs. Edwin Chavez
Lightweight Max Metzgar vs. David McKinney
Background
A Bellator Light Heavyweight World Championship bout between current champion Vadim Nemkov and Yoel Romero is scheduled to headline the event. They were previously expected to meet at Bellator 290 but Nemkov withdrew due to undisclosed reasons.
For the co-main event, a Bellator Bantamweight Championship bout between the current champion Sergio Pettis and the current Bellator Featherweight Champion Patrício Pitbull (also former Bellator Lightweight Champion) is scheduled to take place. This will be the third time in Bellator history that champions in different divisions fought for the same title, following Bellator 206 and Bellator 221 (the latter event in which Pitbull defeated Michael Chandler to become the simultaneous featherweight and lightweight champion).
If successful, Pitbull will become the first man to become a three division champion in a major MMA organization, the first man to become champion in two divisions simultaneously twice, and that his win will mark the fourth instance where a fighter has won a title in different divisions (after Joe Warren at Bellator 128, Ryan Bader at Bellator 214, and Pitbull at Bellator 221). Meanwhile, Pitbull will also become the first challenger in a Bellator champion vs. champion bout to drop a division.
A welterweight bout between Bobby Nash and Roman Faraldo was scheduled for this event. In the beginning of May, it was announced that Faraldo had pulled out of the bout and replaced by Kyle Crutchmer.
A middleweight bout between Austin Vanderford and Imamshafi Aliev and a bantamweight bout between Leandro Higo and Nikita Mikhailov were scheduled for this event. However, both bouts were scrapped due to unknown reasons for the middleweight bout and illness for Mikhailov for the bantamweight one.
