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 (15-6 MMA, 2-1 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.
