Bellator 290 has a new co-main event.
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Reigning light heavyweight king Vadim
Nemkov has withdrawn from his title defense against Yoel Romero
for undisclosed reasons, and as a result, a middleweight title tilt
between Johnny
Eblen and Anatoly
Tokov has been booked as the card’s new co-feature. Promotion
officials initially confirmed the change to
ESPN. It is currently unclear if Nemkov vs. Romero will be
rebooked at a later date.
Bellator 290 takes place on Feb. 4 at The Forum in Inglewood,
Calif., and is headlined by a heavyweight championship rematch
pitting Ryan Bader
against Fedor
Emelianenko. The card will air on CBS, marking the promotion’s
debut on network television.
Eblen claimed middleweight gold in his last outing at Bellator 282,
when he took a five-round verdict over former Strikeforce title
holder Gegard
Mousasi on June 24. The 31-year-old American Top Team
representative is 12-0 as a professional, with eight of those
triumphs coming under the Bellator banner.
Tokov will take a seven-bout promotional winning streak into the
matchup with Eblen. The Fedorteam export was on a two-year hiatus
from October 2019 to October 2021 before returning to post
back-to-back triumphs against Sharaf
Davlatmurodov and Muhammad
Abdullah in his last two Bellator appearances. The 32-year-old
Russian has compiled a 31-2 career mark over the course of a
professional tenure that began in 2009.