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Bellator 297 was just capped off with a light heavyweight title fight that saw former UFC middleweight title challenger, Yoel Romero, get taken to school by the promotion’s defending light heavyweight champion, Vadim Nemkov. The bout lasted all 25-minutes, with Romero having a late rally in the fifth, but getting dominated for the previous four frames.
The 46-year-old Romero found himself in a bad way as soon as the fight started. Nemkov pressured right away behind some sharp boxing combos, and pushed the pace to the point of rendering Romero defensive for extended moments throughout the match.
The 31-year-old Nemkov is now on an impressive 12-fight winning streak, and is steadily building his legacy as Bellator’s 205-pound king. It’ll be interesting to see if we’ll get a third installment of Vadim versus Corey Anderson, who scored a victory over Phil Davis on tonight’s card.
Our description of Yoel Romero vs. Vadim Nemkov in the Bellator 297 main event
Nemkov pressured right away, and Yoel Romero was content to back himself up to the cage. Yoel wasn’t throwing much at all, and when he did pull the trigger, he often missed by a mile. As the opening round went on, Vadim began to tee off. Romero had resorted to being mostly defensive, in what was a great round for the defending champ.
The pressure remained for Nemkov in the second stanza, as well as the target practice. Romero was having a difficult time setting up his own offense. He would feint his way in, but by the time he threw a strike Nemkov was already blasting him, forcing Yoel back into defensive mode. Romero was literally standing like a statue for the closing moments of the round.
We got a burst of offense from Romero to kick off the third round. He was still missing, but at least he was exploding with bad intentions. It wasn’t long before Vadim got back into his groove, and returned to tuning up his challenger. He rocked Romero with some heavy hands, but the 46-year-old somehow hung on. In a moment of chaos, Yoel Romero pushed over Nemkov to take top position, but failed to do anything with the dominant position.
The fourth frame is where Yoel Romero deployed a drunken master sort of style, but it wasn’t working. Nemkov was just lighting him up with crisp boxing. A bunch of 1-2’s, coupled with a periodic overhand. This might be the worst we’ve ever seen Romero look, but he did land a flurry at the end of the round that scared everybody in the arena.
Credit to Yoel Romero for going for it in the final round. He was the one on the front foot, and Nemkov was the one backing up. Yoel pulled off a huge takedown, and proceeded to control the squirming champion. He tried to land some ground and pound, but Nemkov was too active to give Romero enough time to properly posture up.
Highlights
Tonight’s Bellator 297 live mma card results:
Main card
- Vadim Nemkov def. Yoel Romero by unanimous decision (49-46 x3): Light Heavyweight Title
- Sergio Pettis def. Patricio Pitbull by unanimous decision (50-45 x2, 49-46): Bantamweight Title
- Corey Anderson def. Phil Davis by split decision (29-28 x2, 28-29): Light Heavyweight
- Gokhan Saricam def. Daniel James by unanimous decision (30-27 x3): Heavyweight
Prelims
- Gadzhi Rabadanov def. Pieter Buist by unanimous decision (29-28 x3): Lightweight
- Ramazan Kuramagomedov def. Jaleel Willis by KO at 1:24 of round 1: Welterweight
- Norbert Novenyi Jr. def. Kamil Oniszczuk by KO at :46 of round 1: Middleweight
- Archie Colgan def. Emmanuel Sanchez by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28 x2): Lightweight
- Jordan Newman def. Matthew Perry by submission (Americana) at 4:20 of round 1: Middleweight
- Cody Law def. Edwin Chavez by unanimous decision (30-27 x2, 29-28): Featherweight
- Wladmir Gouvea vs. Gabriel Sayeg: Heavyweight
- Kyle Crutchmer vs. Bobby Nash: Welterweight
- Mike Hamel vs. Shamil Nikaev: Lightweight
- Karl Moore vs. Alex Polizzi: Light Heavyweight
- Timur Khizriev vs. Richie Smullen: Featherweight
Bellator 297 prelims free live stream
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