Bellator 297

Bellator 297: Nemkov vs. Romero
Bellator 297: Nemkov vs. Romero
	The poster for Bellator 297: Nemkov vs. Romero
Information
Promotion	Bellator MMA
Date	June 16, 2023
Venue	Wintrust Arena
City	Chicago, Illinois, United States
Event chronology

Bellator 297: Nemkov vs. Romero was a mixed martial arts event produced by Bellator MMA that took place on June 16, 2023, at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois, United States.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

Background

The event marked the promotion's fifth visit to Chicago and first since Bellator 288 in November 2022.^[1]

A Bellator Light Heavyweight Championship bout between current champion Vadim Nemkov and Yoel Romero headlined the event. They were previously expected to meet at Bellator 290 but Nemkov withdrew due to undisclosed reasons.^[5]

For the co-main event, a Bellator Bantamweight Championship bout between current champion Sergio Pettis and the current Bellator Featherweight Champion Patrício Pitbull (also former Bellator Lightweight Champion) took place.^[6] This was 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).^[7]

If successful, Pitbull would have 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 would have mark the fourth time overall 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).^[8] Meanwhile, Pitbull also became the first challenger in a Bellator champion vs. champion bout to drop a division.^[9]

A welterweight bout between Bobby Nash and Roman Faraldo was scheduled for this event.^[10] In the beginning of May, it was announced that Faraldo had pulled out of the bout and replaced by Kyle Crutchmer.^[11]

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.^[12]

Results

Main Card (Showtime)
Weight class				Method	Round	Time	Notes
Light Heavyweight	Vadim Nemkov (c)	def.	Yoel Romero	Decision (unanimous) (49–46, 49–46, 49–46)	5	5:00	^[a]
Bantamweight	Sergio Pettis (c)	def.	Patrício Pitbull	Decision (unanimous) (49–46, 50–45, 50–45)	5	5:00	^[b]
Light Heavyweight	Corey Anderson	def.	Phil Davis	Decision (split) (29–28, 28–29, 29–28)	3	5:00
Heavyweight	Gökhan Saricam	def.	Daniel James	Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 30–27, 30–27)	3	5:00
Preliminary card (Youtube/Pluto TV)
Lightweight	Gadzhi Rabadanov	def.	Pieter Buist	Decision (unanimous) (29–28, 29–28, 29–28)	3	5:00
Welterweight	Ramazan Kuramagomedov	def.	Jaleel Willis	KO (knee and punches)	1	1:24
Middleweight	Norbert Növényi Jr.	def.	Kamil Oniszczuk	KO (punches)	1	0:46
Lightweight	Archie Colgan	def.	Emmanuel Sanchez	Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 30–27, 30–27)	3	5:00
Middleweight	Jordan Newman	def.	Matthew Perry	Submission (keylock)	1	4:20
Featherweight	Cody Law	def.	Edwin Chavez	Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 30–27, 29–28)	3	5:00
Postliminary card (Youtube)
Heavyweight	Wladmir Gouvea	def.	Gabriel Sayeg	KO (body kick and punches)	1	0:20
Welterweight	Kyle Crutchmer	def.	Bobby Nash	TKO (punches)	1	3:42
Lightweight	Mike Hamel	def.	Shamil Nikaev	Decision (majority) (28–28, 29–28, 29–28)	3	5:00
Light Heavyweight	Karl Moore	def.	Alex Polizzi	Decision (unanimous) (29–28, 29–28, 29–28)	3	5:00
Featherweight	Timur Khizriev	def.	Richie Smullen	Decision (unanimous) (30–27, 30–27, 30–27)	3	5:00