Bellator 297 loses two bouts including former title challenger
Bellator 297 has taken a pair of hits the week prior to the June 16 event at Wintrust Arena in Chicago.
Former Bellator middleweight title challenger Austin Vanderford (11-2 MMA, 5-2 BMMA) was expected to face Imamshafi Aliev (9-0 MMA, 1-0 BMMA), but that fight has been canceled for undisclosed reasons.
Additionally, the bantamweight bout between Leandro Higo (21-6 MMA, 4-4 BMMA) and Nikita Mikhailov (10-2 MMA, 3-1 BMMA) is off due to an illness with the former.
The card is set to proceed with 16 bouts including a light heavyweight title fight in the main event, as champion Vadim Nemkov (16-2 MMA, 8-0 BMMA) tries to defend his title against former UFC title challenger Yoel Romero (9-4 MMA, 15-6 BMMA).
In the co-main event, Bellator featherweight champion Patricio Freire (35-5 MMA, 23-5 BMMA) looks to become the first fighter to win three divisional titles in the same major promotion when he takes on Bellator bantamweight champion Sergio Pettis (22-5 MMA, 9-5 BMMA).
With the cancellations, the Bellator 297 card includes:
Champion Vadim Nemkov vs. Yoel Romero – for light heavyweight title
Champion Sergio Pettis vs. Patricio Freire – for bantamweight title
Corey Anderson vs. Phil Davis
Daniel James vs. Gokhan Saricam
David McKinney vs. Max Metzgar
Wladmir Gouvea vs. Gabriel Sayeg
Kyle Crutchmer vs. Bobby Nash
Pieter Buist vs. Gadzhi Rabadanov
Ramazan Kurmagomedov vs. Jaleel Willis
Mike Hamel vs. Shamil Nikaev
Norbert Novenyi vs. Kamil Oniszczuk
Archie Colgan vs. Emmanuel Sanchez
Karl Moore vs. Alex Polizzi
Timur Khizriev vs. Richie Smullen
Jordan Newman vs. Matthew Perry
Edwin Chavez vs. Cody Law
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 297.