Vadim Nemkov makes fourth defense of light-heavyweight title, dominates Yoel Romero at Bellator 297
Bellator MMA returns to us tonight, June 16, 2023, for Bellator 297, going down live from Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois.
Headlining the event is a light-heavyweight championship affair between current three-time defending champion Vadim Nemkov (17-2, 1 NC) and former three-time UFC middleweight title challenger Yoel Romero (15-7).
Nemkov was coming off his dominant win over Corey Anderson in their rematch back in November of last year, while Romero came into the bout on a two-fight knockout streak.
Continue reading to see how our championship main event of the evening went down:
Official Result: Vadim Nemkov def. Yoel Romero via unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 49-46)
The champion has a dominant opening five minutes, impressively out-striking Romero throughout. He invests in his body kicks early and is landing good punches upstairs. He’s also hiding nice head kicks behind some of those combinations, though none landed flush in the first.
Nemkov is catching and stunning Romero with two-punch combinations toward the end of round two, and by this point he has landed over five times the number of strikes as the challenger.
Nemkov continues to dominate through the middle stretch, he really begins to tag Romero up badly in this round.
Nemkov handily takes the championship rounds as well, short of the final 80 seconds or so of the fifth and final round where Romero was able to put Nemkov on his back and keep him there until the final bell.
Merely every time Vadim Nemkov fights, we wonder if he’s the best light-heavyweight in the world right now.
We must wonder how he’d do against UFC champion Jamahal Hill, or how a rematch with former UFC and Rizin champion Jiri Prochazka would go. Or, how about Nemkov versus Magomed Ankalaev? After four title defenses, we’ve got to hope he makes the promotional switch at some point in his career.
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