Bellator 273: Bader vs. Moldavsky is a mixed martial arts event produced by the Bellator MMA that will take place on January 29, 2022 at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona, United States.
Fight Card
Main Card (Showtime)
Heavyweight Ryan Bader (c) vs. Valentin Moldavsky (ic) Heavyweight Championship
Lightweight Benson Henderson (#6) vs. Islam Mamedov (#7)
Featherweight Henry Corrales vs. Aiden Lee
Welterweight Sabah Homasi vs. Jaleel Willis
Preliminary Card (Youtube/Pluto TV)
Bantamweight Darrion Caldwell vs. Enrique Barzola
Lightweight Chris Gonzalez vs. Saad Awad
Middleweight Duane Johnson vs. Dalton Rosta
Bantamweight Nikita Mikhailov vs. Blaine Shutt
Featherweight Lucas Brennan vs. Ben Lugo
Featherweight Fabricio Franco vs. Weber Almeida
Light Heavyweight Ben Parrish vs. Sullivan Cauley
Background
A winner in eight of his last 11 bouts, Bader will be making his return to the heavyweight division for the first time since 2019, Bader’s last title defense came against the Cheick Kongo at Bellator 226 , a bout Bader was controlling until an accidental eye poke prematurely ended the contest. Since then, Bader lost his 205-pound title against Vadim Nemkov before entering the promotion’s light heavyweight grand prix where he defeated Lyoto Machida in April before suffering a KO loss to Corey Anderson in October at Bellator 268. Moldavsky, a protege of Fedor Emelianenko, became Bellator’s first-ever interim heavyweight champion with a unanimous decision win over Timothy Johnson at Bellator 261. The 29-year-old enters the bout with six consecutive victories.
A middleweight bout between Romero Cotton and Dalton Rosta was scheduled for this event. However, two weeks before the event Cotton pulled out of the bout due to illness and was replaced by Duane Johnson.
A featherweight bout between Weber Almeida and Josh Wright was scheduled for this event, however it was scrapped due to unknown reasons. Fabricio Franco was instead booked against Weber.