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Yoel Romero Set To Return To Bellator Against Melvin Manhoef On May 6

Yoel Romero will be getting back in the Bellator cage in Paris. After his promotional debut with Bellator didn’t go his way, Yoel Romero is scheduled to take another shot at a win. Romero will be taking on Melvin Manhoef at the upcoming Bellator Paris event set to take place on May 6. The news…

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Yoel Romero will be getting back in the Bellator cage in Paris.

After his promotional debut with Bellator didn’t go his way, Yoel Romero is scheduled to take another shot at a win. Romero will be taking on Melvin Manhoef at the upcoming Bellator Paris event set to take place on May 6. The news was first announced by the promotion in a press release. This matchup will serve as the co-main event.

The news of Bellator holding an event in France was met with applause by fighters and fans. Mixed martial arts as a sport was not legal in France until 2020. With the difficulty of holding an event during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of professional events held in the country has been minimal. Bellator held an event in Paris back in October of 2020 and it was a great success, so much so that they are doing it again.

Adding Romero to this card will bring the star power that fans want to see. His signing with the organization after leaving the UFC was met with high praise. Unfortunately, Romero didn’t start off the way he had planned. He lost his first Bellator fight back in September to Phil Davis. He will have the chance to right the ship against Manhoef.

Manhoef will be coming into this fight having lost his last outing as well. He lost via KO against Corey Anderson in Nov. of 2020. Prior to that, however, he won two in a row, both in Europe. Perhaps fighting in Europe could be his lucky charm, as he will have the chance to see against the hype of Romero.

Bellator Paris will take place at the Accor Arena in Paris, France on May. 6.

The full fight card to date is as follows:

Heavyweight World Title Main Event: #C-Ryan Bader (29-7, 1 NC) vs. #2-Cheick Kongo (31-11-2, 1 NC)

Light Heavyweight Co-Main Event: Yoel Romero (13-6) vs. #10-Melvin Manhoef (32-15-1, 2 NC)

Lightweight Bout: Søren Bak (15-1) vs. Saul Rogers (15-4)

Lightweight Bout: Yves Landu (16-9) vs. Gavin Hughes (10-2)

Who do you have winning this light heavyweight matchup?

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Yoel Romero vs. Melvin Manhoef Set For Bellator Paris

Yoel Romero will make his sophomore Bellator appearance when the promotion heads to Paris, France on May 6. The 44-year-old is set to face Melvin Manhoef in the co-main event of the card that will be topped by a heavyweight title fight between Ryan Bader and Cheick Kongo. Yoel Romero’s Career Hasn’t Gone Great As […]

Yoel Romero’s Career Hasn’t Gone Great As Of Late

Romero made his promotional debut last September at Bellator 266 when he took on Phil Davis in the event’s light heavyweight headliner. Despite a closely-contested first-round, Romero would comfortably lose the next two rounds as Davis earned the split decision verdict. It makes it four defeats in a row for Romero who suffered losses to Israel Adesanya, Paulo Costa and Robert Whittaker before he was released by the UFC.

At Bellator Paris, Romero faces the 45-year-old Manhoef who is coming off a second-round TKO defeat to Corey Anderson last time out. Prior to that, Manhoef rolled back the year to string together back-to-back wins over Yannick Bahati and Kent Kauppinen.

The Bellator light-heavyweight strap will be on the line when Vadim Nemkov takes on Corey Anderson in the 205lb Grand Prix final later this year.

Do you think Yoel Romero will get his first Bellator win when he takes on Melvin Manhoef at Bellator Paris on May 6?

McKee vs. Pitbull II & Nemkov vs. Anderson Final Booked For April 15

A massive Bellator double-header is booked for April 15 when AJ McKee vs. Patricio Pitbull II and Vadim Nemkov vs. Corey Anderson take place in the SAP Center in San Jose, California. AJ McKee’s run as the Bellator featherweight champion has just begun, but he will already be facing a familiar foe. McKee will be…

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A massive Bellator double-header is booked for April 15 when AJ McKee vs. Patricio Pitbull II and Vadim Nemkov vs. Corey Anderson take place in the SAP Center in San Jose, California.

AJ McKee’s run as the Bellator featherweight champion has just begun, but he will already be facing a familiar foe. McKee will be matched up with the man he defeated to become that champion, Patricio “Pitbull” Freire.

Both McKee and Pitbull fought their way through the Bellator Featherweight Grand Prix last year to make it to the finals. On July 31, 2021, the two met in the final with the featherweight belt and one million dollars on the line. Pitbull was holding the strap coming in, but it would be McKee who would walk out with it. He was able to stop Freire by submission in the first round.

McKee was on the last fight of his Bellator contract, but winning the title renewed it. He will now begin his title reign against a very formidable foe. Prior to losing the featherweight title, Pitbull was simultaneously holding the lightweight belt as well. He decided to vacate that 155-pound belt so that his brother could have a shot at it. Now without any belt, Pitbull will be coming in hard against McKee to regain what he lost.

McKee has spent his entire professional career with Bellator. He started as a 0-0 prospect and worked his way up to the very top. Scott Coker believes that he may be the best featherweight in the world at this point. There is no love lost between these two as Pitbull is adamant that he was not finished by McKee in their first meeting.

In the co-main event, we will see the finals of the light heavyweight grand prix when defending champion Vadim Nemkov takes on Corey Anderson. To reach this point, Nemkov defeated Phil Davis and Julius Anglickas while Anderson defeated Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov and Ryan Bader, both via TKO.

Which two fighters do you think will emerge victorious in this massive double-header?

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REPORT | A.J. McKee vs. Patricio Pitbull 2 Targeted For Bellator Event In April

A featherweight championship rematch between reigning division champion and 2021 Grand Prix victor, A.J. McKee, and former two-weight champion, Patricio Pitbull is currently in the works for a Bellator event in April. At the time of publication, a location or venue for the event has yet to be determined by the organization. Initially meeting in […]

Initially meeting in the Bellator Featherweight World Grand Prix final back in July of last year, the undefeated A.J. McKee snapped the memorable featherweight run of Pitbull with a first round standing guillotine choke after dropping the Brazilian with an earlier high-kick.

A.J. McKee managed to stop Patricio Pitbull with a submission win inside the opening two minutes of their clash

The victory improved A.J. McKee to 18-0 — his eighteenth under the promotion’s banner, having competed entirely for the Scott Coker-led organization since his debut back in April 2015.

For Pitbull, following his loss to the Californian, which snapped a run of seven straight victories for him, he also vacated his Bellator lightweight championship which is currently held by his elder sibling, Patricky Pitbull following a November knockout win over Peter Queally. Ariel Helwani was first to report the targeted rematch on his official Substack.

Embarking on a four-fight winning spree including his win over Pitbull throughout the Grand Prix tournament, McKee, a native of Long Beach, stopped Georgi Karakhanyan with strikes, before submitting both Derek Campos, and then former bantamweight champion, Darion Caldwell – the second of which with a Submission of the Year contender neck crank in November 2020.

32-5 as a professional, Pitbull had made his way to the tournament final with a trio of victories against former champion, Juan Archuleta, a knockout over Pedro Carvalho, and a submission win over two-time opponent, Emmanuel Sanchez – the most recent of which back in April of last year. Over the course of his professional career, Pitbull has scored 11 knockout wins to go with 12 submission victories.

Cheick Kongo To Ryan Bader: “I’m Going To Murder You”

Bellator heavyweight contender Cheick Kongo is looking to earn more than the heavyweight title in his upcoming rematch against Ryan Bader. Kongo has proved that age may be just a number during his recent run-in Bellator. The 46-year-old has won 9 of his last 11 fights, including most recently against Sergei Kharitonov at Bellator 265. […]

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Bellator heavyweight contender Cheick Kongo is looking to earn more than the heavyweight title in his upcoming rematch against Ryan Bader.

Kongo has proved that age may be just a number during his recent run-in Bellator. The 46-year-old has won 9 of his last 11 fights, including most recently against Sergei Kharitonov at Bellator 265.

Just minutes after Bader earned a unanimous decision victory against Valentin Moldavsky at Bellator 273, the promotion announced that Bader will defend his belt against Kongo in May at an event in Paris.

The Bader-Kongo rivalry is one of the most heated in recent Bellator history. The two top heavyweights fought to a no-contest after an accidental eye-poke by Bader stopped the fight. Bader later denied that he poked Kongo.

Kongo is looking to earn a decisive win this time against Bader. During a recent interview with Mirror, he revealed what he told Bader during their staredown following Bellator 273.

“I told him ‘karma is a b****’ and you did really good,” Kongo said. “I was impressed with his performance, it was a really good satisfaction. I wish he will be able to perform the same way [against me] but I’m going to kill you. When he left the cage, I told him ‘you better be ready, because I’m gonna murder you’. I wasn’t expecting to face him after three years, I thought it was just a utopia but they make it real. Now it’s happening. His salvation will probably for me to die with Covid or get hit by a car to not face me.”

Kongo will have the opportunity to exact his revenge against Bader in front of the hometown crowd in Paris. He has his own gym and team in France called “Kongo’s Smashin’ Club”, which features top prospects such as Djati Melan.

Kongo’s murder comments remind some fans of UFC middleweight contender Sean Strickland, who has previously spoken about his desire to kill someone in the cage.

The Kongo-Bader rivalry doesn’t show any signs of cooling down anytime soon, and their fight is expected to be one of the most highly-anticipated in Bellator in 2022.

What is your prediction for Ryan Bader vs. Cheick Kongo 2?

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Lyoto Machida Plans To Test Free Agency After Final Bellator Fight

Former UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida says he still has the desire to fight again. Machida is set to fight out his Bellator contract in his next fight, and he revealed he plans to test free agency after that. “[Bellator] came to us and said, ‘Let’s renew [the contract] one more time if Lyoto […]

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Former UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida says he still has the desire to fight again.

Machida is set to fight out his Bellator contract in his next fight, and he revealed he plans to test free agency after that.

“[Bellator] came to us and said, ‘Let’s renew [the contract] one more time if Lyoto wants to,’ and whatever, and we said no, let’s fight this one first and then we’ll see,” Machida said to MMAFighting. “Every fight is a different fight for me. I saw it that way in the past, and even more now.”

Although Lyoto Machida says he wants to fight again, he isn’t sure where it will be. He says he wants to be challenged and doesn’t want any easy fights to end his career.

Not only does he want to be challenged, but the former UFC champion says he wants to be the one to retire from MMA, not being forced out as many veterans are. He still believes he is competing at a high level at 43-years-old but is on a three-fight losing streak.

“I don’t want to end it like most people end their careers,” said Machida. “I want to get to a point and say, ‘Well, I think I’m good.’ I don’t want other people telling me, ‘Lyoto, I you can’t do it anymore,’ or whatever. The way I feel and train, I’m the one that decides. We must have the opportunity to fight, of course. I might know how to wire walk, but there’s no point if I don’t have the wire. I want to continue fighting. I don’t know if [I’ll do] three or four more fights.

“When I was younger, 10 years ago, I was taught to fight every fight as if it was my last; ‘Lyoto, a samurai enters a fight as if it’s last fight.’ You must give your all in training and in the fight, mentally speaking. And now, more than ever, I can’t come here imagining I’ll have three, four, five fights. Every fight is like my last fight. Not in a sense of ending my career, but in the sense of giving my all. And that’s when I’ll make my decision. The fire is still burning inside me and that’s what matters the most. I want to innovate. I want to create a different game. I want to do different things that give me a different experience. And [I want to] fight.”

When and who Machida fights next is uncertain, but it may be his final fight in Bellator.

Who would you like to see Lyoto Machida face next?

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