According to ESPN AR, citing a source, Nemkov withdrew from the fight for unknown reasons. Yes, there is no official information yet, but the Russian’s decision does not seem unexpected, on the contrary, it seems quite logical. So the fight, rather, was not canceled, but rather postponed.
Nemkov just doesn’t have time to recover after winning the Bellator Grand Prix final. On November 18, 2022, Vadim fought a tough five-round fight, earning a landslide victory over American Corey Anderson via unanimous decision. Re-entering the cage after 2.5 months is a risk. You may not be in the best shape. For example, the gap between the first final against Anderson, when the fight was stopped at the end of the third round after an accidental head butt and ruled not to have taken place, and the second title fight was a full seven months. .
In the absence of Nemkov and Romero, another fight will enter the Bellator 290 card, in which the Russian Anatoly Tokov and the American Johnny Eblin will face each other. The middleweight title will be at stake. Let’s remember that Anatoly Tokov had seven successful fights as part of this promotion. In the last fight in June, he earned an early win over Muhammad Abdullah.
The main event of the night remains the fight between Russian veteran Fedor Emelianenko and American representative Ryan Bader.
By the way, former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov has arrived in Japan. Bellator vs. Rizen will take place in Tokyo on December 31. Khabib will be the captain of the Bellator team.
