On September 18, Bellator 266 will take place in Sap Center, San Jose, California. The headlining of the event is going to be a light heavyweight battle between Former UFC fighters Yoel Romero and Phil Davis.
Yoel Romero will make his debut in the Bellator promotion and in the new weight category, too. Unfortunately for him, he had a terrible losing streak in the UFC and lost many opportunities to win the title in the middleweight division.
The last time he fought at UFC 248 against current middleweight king Israel Adesanya. Some people think it was a very dull fight, but it was actually a chess fight. Both fighters were waiting for his moment, but The Last Stylebender won that duel. Soldier of God lost 4 of his last five contests. Twice against former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker, once against former title challenger Paulo Costa and once against Israel Adesanya. It sounds like he is not in the best shape, but he fought well in all the fights against the strongest strikers, and no one of these strikers managed to finish Romero. Everyone was scared to face Romero, so he was sharing the cage with the bests only. He was on eight winning streaks in the UFC until facing Robert for the first time. He defeated former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman, Luke Rockhold, Ronaldo Souza, Lyoto Machida, Tim Kennedy, Brad Tavares, Derek Brunson, etc. The forty-four-year-old fighters' background sport is freestyle wrestling, but he is very powerful, so he has a brutal KO with a flying knee, Elbow, and Punch.
Bet on Yoel Romero vs. Phil Davis with 1xBetJust like his rival, Phil Davis is a former UFC fighter, too. He left the UFC in 2015 and made his debut in the Bellator. In this promotion, he earned 9 victories and 3 defeats. The last time he fought rematch against Vadim Nemkov at Bellator 257. Just like their first fight, Phil Davis left the cage with another. Before that fight, he defeated Lyoto Machida via split decision. Machida and Davis faced each other in the UFC, too, in 2013, and Phil defeated him in the UFC. Phil has defeated Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Alexandre Gustafsson, and the next UFC light heavyweight challenger, Glover Teixeira.
Both athletes are very experienced, so it is hard to compare them via that category. Even though he fought against powerful strikers, he has never been finished. Phil will have a significant reach advantage. His reach is 198 CM, while Cuban fighter has 11 Cm less reach of 187 CM.
Lots of people think that Romero will rise in the Bellator. Romero was using his strength as the advantage in the middleweight, but in the light heavyweight, he will not be able to use his strength as a notable advantage. Also, he is 44 years old and has not fought for more than one year. From my point of view, Romero will open this fight as a favorite, but Phil has every advantage to beat him and get closer to his title.