Undisputed Champion vs Interim Champion: Yaroslav Amosov vs Logan Storley II booked for Bellator 291
We finally have the return of Ukrainian killer Yaroslav Amosov (26-0) on tap, nearly two years following his claim of the Bellator welterweight championship, as he’s slated to face interim champion Logan Storley (14-1) for the second time next month at Bellator 291.
Bellator 291 is to go down on February 25, 2023, live from the 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland.
This is such an intriguing matchup for so many reasons.
For one, this has been the longest layoff of Amosov’s career, by a long shot.
Not to mention, his first fight with Storley was incredibly close and really could’ve gone either way.
Amosov joined the Bellator roster in 2018 with a record of 19-0 as the Tech-KREP FC welterweight champion, a title he won, and defended twice prior to coming over. He would win the title against two-division KSW champion (welterweight & middleweight) Roberto Soldic, who’s currently 20-3 as a professional with 17 knockout wins.
Soldic is also 14-1 in his last 15 bouts, only losing to no. 10 ranked UFC middleweight contender Dricus du Plessis. Soldic knocked him out in their immediate rematch, and Du Plessis has since won his last six-straight fights, going 4-0 with three finishes thus far into his UFC career, improving his record to 18-2.
Nonetheless, once arriving to the Bellator cage, Amosov would defeat UFC veterans Gerald Harris and Erick Silva in back-to-back outings, before defeating longtime Bellator staple David Rickels who was 4-1 in his last five appearances going in, only losing to Michael Page.
Amosov followed this up with a dominant victory over three-time NCAA Division I national champion Ed Ruth, someone he handily out-wrestled for three rounds, before TKO’ing Mark Lemminger in his next outing.
Amosov then fought Logan Storley, who he defeated via split decision in a very close encounter; Storley was someone that actually competed with him in the wrestling department, both men had loads of success in that fight.
Then we have his last fight, where he took the Bellator welterweight championship from longtime, and multi-time champion Douglas Lima via unanimous decision, easily winning all five rounds of the contest.
Lima was 11-3 in his last 14 coming in; he’d lost to former Bellator welterweight champions Andrey Koreshkov and Rory MacDonald, both of which he avenged, and then he lost in his middleweight title shot to Gegard Mousasi.
That was an incredibly impressive performance by Amosov, perhaps the best he’s had. That and the Ed Ruth one.
Then there’s Logan Storley, who’s been nearly perfect throughout his career as well.
Storley defeated UFC middleweight talent Joaquin Buckley in his third promotional bout, and he defeated former title challenger Neiman Gracie, as well as Michael Page in his latest two appearances.
Gracie was coming off a TKO win over Lemminger himself, the first knockout win of his career, and Page was 20-1 as a professional riding a six-fight win streak, having avenged his only defeat to date prior to losing against Storley.
With the way their first fight went, there’s no telling how this fight could go. One’s undefeated, the other has only lost a single time by a very slim margin. Who walks away from Bellator 291 the welterweight champion?
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