Picture Credit: Twitter
In a potential first, Yoel Romero, the Cuban MMA artist, has attended a face-off for his upcoming bout in the Bellator 297 main event virtually from his hotel bed. The 46-year-old is scheduled to take on the Bellator Light Heavyweight champion Vadim Nemkov of Russia on June 16, Friday in a title match from the Wintrust Arena in Chicago.
It has been reported that Yoel Romero had initially skipped the face-off with Vadim Nemkov on the 99th floor of the Willis Tower in Chicago, because of his fear of heights. This led to Bellator getting innovative and arranging a face-off between both combat sport athletes virtually at the venue. The Willis Tower is known as the tallest building in Chicago and the third tallest building in the USA, standing at a whopping 1,451 feet.
As the Bellator 297 weigh-in event was getting wrapped up, Nemkov was seen walking towards the front of the TV screen to do a face-off with his challenger. Romero appeared bigger in size than the champion, albeit it was just a close-up shot of him on the TV screen.
Watch the face-off between Romero and Nemkov here:
Chael Sonnen, the former UFC fighter and the host of the press conference at Bellator 297, was quoted as saying jokingly on behalf of the promotion, “Turns out, he’s (Yoel Romero) not scared of much. Can we agree on that? Do you guys know why he’s not here today? I hope you don’t know. Do you know why Yoel is not with us today? Turns out, he’s scared of heights.”
“He wasn’t scared of (Vadim) Nemkov, he wasn’t scared of the Russian, mysterious champion of the world that he’s going to be locked in the cage with. But he was scared to come to the press conference when he found out what floor it was on. Quite frankly, I really don’t blame him guys, we’re up here pretty high, aren’t we?” added Chael Sonnen.
