ROSEMONT, Ill. – The man with the most prodigious facial hair in MMA will oversee tonight’s fight between two of the most prodigious heavyweights in history.

Mike Beltran will referee the Bellator 198 main event between Fedor Emelianenko (36-5 MMA, 0-1 BMMA) and Frank Mir (18-11 MMA, 0-0 BMMA), which is part of the opening round of the promotion’s heavyweight grand prix tournament.

Bellator 198 takes place at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill., near Chicago. The main card airs on Paramount following prelims on MMAjunkie. The event will be overseen by the Illinois State Athletic Commission, part of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.

Legendary Russian Emelianenko, regarded by many as one of the greatest in the sport’s history, is a former PRIDE heavyweight champion. Mir is a former UFC champ and interim UFC champ who will be making his promotional debut after a 27-fight run – all but two of his career fights – in the UFC.

Beltran is scheduled to officiate three other fights at tonight’s event, including the main-card welterweight fight between Neiman Gracie (7-0 MMA, 5-0 BMMA) and Javier Torres (10-3 MMA, 0-0 BMMA).

In addition to Beltran, Rob Madrigal, Kevin MacDonald and Josh Stewart all will see action as the third man in the cage.

Bellator 198 marks the second straight year the promotion has come to the Chicago area for a big event. Bellator 175 took place at Allstate Arena in March 2017 and featured a main event between Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal. That event brought in a reported 11,807 fans for a gate in excess of $1 million.

For complete coverage of Bellator 198, check out the MMA Events section of the site.