John Salter Submits Chidi Njokuani In First Round Of Bellator 210 Main Event

Despite coming in as a late replacement, John Salter walked out of the Bellator 210 main event with a big submission win.

Salter was able to lock in a rear-naked choke on Chidi Njokuani late in the first round to get back to his winning ways. Salter, who has not won a fight since Bellator 188 in November 2017, replaced Melvin Manhoef as Njokuani’s opponent a few weeks ago as Manhoef suffered an injury which prevented him from competing.

Below is the full fight recap written on Fightful’s live coverage of the entire card, which can be read at this link.

Chidi Njokuani vs. John Salter: Middleweight Bout 

Round 1: Salter opens things off with a leg kick. Njokuani throws a big right hand to the chin and Salter throws a couple of punches as well. Njokuani gets a leg kick of his own. Both fighters trade quick left jabs, but no fighter has yet to take full control of the fight. Salter rushes in for a single-leg takedown, but after initially not getting it, Njokuani does manage to go down for a second before he got back up. Salter eventually gets Njokuani down and Salter is throwing a couple of right hands from top position. Salter manages to turn Njokuani and locks in a rear naked choke and Njokuani taps.

Official Result: John Salter defeated Chidi Njokuani by submission (rear-naked choke) at 4:32 of Round 1.

The 33-year-old Salter was well on his way to potentially challenging for a world title in 2019, but lost to Rafael Lovato Jr. at Bellator 206 to end Salter’s undefeated run with the company. Njokuani will now go back to the drawing board now that he has lost two of his last three fights after winning his first four fights in Bellator.