Breaking: Bellator 297 will take place in Chicago with ex-UFC star headlining for the light-heavyweight championship

Bellator announced that they will host Bellator 297 at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois, and will be bringing an exciting lineup of fights.

The main event will see Yoel Romero challenge reigning light heavyweight champion Vadim Nemkov in the main event. The former UFC middleweight title challenger made his promotional debut in 2021, where he lost a unanimous decision to Phil Davis, but has since turned things around.

'The Soldier of God' is riding a two-fight winning streak that includes a third-round TKO win over Alex Polizzi and a third-round knockout win over Melvin Manhoef. The title fight was originally scheduled to take place on the promotion's network debut on CBS, however, the champion was forced to withdraw from the event.

Nemkov has been on an impressive run as he recently won the light heavyweight Grand Prix after a unanimous decision win over Corey Anderson in the finals, and is unbeaten since joining the promotion. Some of his wins include a submission win over Pedro Carvalho, two decision wins over Phil Davis, and a TKO win over reigning heavyweight champion Ryan Bader.

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Patricio 'Pitbull' Freire looks to make history at Bellator 297

The co-main event of Bellator 297 is equally as exciting as reigning featherweight champion Patricio 'Pitbull' Freire is looking to make history when he challenges bantamweight champion Sergio Pettis.

'Pitbull' will have an opportunity to become the first three-division champion as he moved up and defeated Michael Chandler via first-round TKO in 2019 to become a two-division champion, and later vacated the title in favor of returning to featherweight. Pettis is coming off a long layoff as he last fought in December 2021, where he defeated Kyoji Horiguchi to successfully retain his bantamweight title.

Pettis is riding a 5-fight winning streak dating back to his final UFC fight in 2019, while 'Pitbull' is riding a three-fight winning streak that saw him regain his featherweight championship from A.J. McKee, a title defense against Adam Borics, and a unanimous decision win over Rizin featherweight champion Kleber Koike Erbst.