There were no title shifts at Bellator 297 on Friday night, as both headlining champions successfully defended their belts. While Bellator MMA light heavyweight champion Vadim Nemkov extended his title reign in dominant fashion over the weekend, the big story of the event was Sergio Pettis shutting down two-division champion and pound-for-pound talent Patricio Freire over five rounds to retain his bantamweight strap. A history-making “Pitbull” victory would have created some interesting matchups down the line, but Pettis will now have some catching up to do against the top contenders at 135 pounds; contenders that he was unable to fight while he was recovering from his injury. He will most likely start with the man who holds the other piece of the bantamweight belt.
Waiting in the wings on Friday night was Bellator interim bantamweight champion “Patchy” Mix, who had been expecting “Pitbull” to get the job done against Pettis. He captured the interim strap back in April, when he knocked out Raufeon Stots with a devastating knee in the first round to win Bellator’s bantamweight grand prix. Pettis was originally slated to defend his undisputed title against Mix in April of 2022, but Pettis was forced to pull out of the contest after sustaining an injury and Juan Archuleta stepped in to face Mix for the interim title instead, Unfortunately for Mix, Pettis opted for the bigger fight against Pitbull upon his return from the injury. But now that that’s out of the way, it’s likely that Mix will be up next for the shot.
Since he has done almost all there is to do in Bellator’s light heavyweight division, it only seems natural that the champ would consider a move up to heavyweight. While Nemkov finished Bader with strikes in the second round of their first meeting back in 2020, perhaps just enough time has passed to make a rematch for Bader’s heavyweight title more marketable. Since losing to Corey Anderson in the grand prix semifinal in August 2021, Bader has decided to focus on heavyweight, defending his title three more times in the process.
While Anderson managed to get a unanimous decision victory against Phil Davis on the main card and is eyeing another crack at the belt, he is still only one fight removed from losing against Nemkov last November. Neal on the other hand, has put together two wins since his split decision loss to Alex Polizzi in September 2021 and is currently ranked No. 4 in the weight class. These two guys can probably use at least one more win before going for the title, so why not fight each other in a title eliminator?