Bellator 290 gets Johnny Eblen vs. Anatoly Tokov title fight with Nemkov-Romero off

Bellator’s first event in the new year has a new title fight to take the place of one that will head to the backburner.

The new Bellator 290 co-main event in February will be a middleweight title fight between champion Johnny Eblen (12-0 MMA, 8-0 BMMA) and challenger Anatoly Tokov (31-3 MMA, 7-0 BMMA), a teammate of Fedor Emelianenko, who challenges Ryan Bader for the heavyweight title in the headliner. Bellator officials announced the new fight Tuesday.

The middleweight title bout takes the place of the originally announced co-main event between light heavyweight champ Vadim Nemkov (16-2 MMA, 8-0 BMMA) and Yoel Romero (15-6 MMA, 2-1 BMMA), which officials said in a news release is “unable to take place as scheduled.”

Bellator 290 takes place Feb. 4 at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif., just outside Los Angeles. For the first time in promotion history, the main card will air on CBS in a nationally televised prime time broadcast. The card also will stream on Paramount+. Prelims will stream on MMA Junkie.

Eblen won the middleweight title at Bellator 282 in June when he dominated Gegard Mousasi on the scorecards for a 50-45 unanimous decision sweep. The wrestling standout beat John Salter in March to put himself in position for a title shot.

Tokov beat Muhammad Abdullah with a first-round TKO at Bellator 282 for his seventh straight win, all under the Bellator banner. In October 2021, Tokov returned after a two-year layoff and took a split decision from Sharaf Davlatmurodov.

With the change, the Bellator 290 lineup now includes:

• Champ Ryan Bader vs. Fedor Emelianenko – for heavyweight title
• Champ Johnny Eblen vs. Anatoly Tokov – for middleweight title
• Sabah Homasi vs. Brennan Ward
• Henry Corrales vs. Akhmed Magomedov
• Diana Avsaragova vs. Alejandra Lara
• Neiman Gracie vs. Michael Lombardo
• Ethan Hughes vs. Yusuf Karakaya
• Chris Gonzalez vs. Max Rohskopf
• Karl Albrektsson vs. Grant Neal
• Jaylon Bates vs. Jornel Lugo