Vadim Nemkov Says Corey Anderson Fight Made No Sense

Vadim Nemkov, Bellator 297
Vadim Nemkov, Bellator 297 Credit: Lucas Noonan/Cageside Press

PFL heavyweight Vadim Nemkov is just days away from fighting for the first time in nearly a year, but he finds himself dealing with a bit of controversy when it comes to the opponent.

Not Tim Johnson. Bellator light heavyweight champion Corey Anderson.

“We didn’t even consider him as an opponent to begin with. when it was announced, we talked to PFL, we asked them to renegotiate the contract, offer better money or ask for the contract to be for a title fight let’s say, for the heavyweight division title with the belt on the line but the PFL refused to do so,” Nemkov told MMAFighting.

“So that fight didn’t make any sense. You’ve been around for a while, you know every fight has to make sense.”

PFL had announced his fight this weekend in Saudi Arabia would be against Anderson. Not long after it was announced that the fight was off which left Anderson with no fight.

“Fights off an according to Bellator/PFL Nemkov was being a crybaby about the fight. They agreed then declined because I’m “too tough of a fight,” Anderson said in a social media post.

“But wai!! There’s more, he wants to stay on the card, but wants to fight a lesser opponent… Last time we fought, his cameraman said I was easy work and didn’t deserve to fight him again… then, after I earned it, his cameraman then said he was now too big to fight LHW.”

“Honestly speaking it’s from the perspective of what I can get out of this fight. There’s nothing that I can gain from it,” said Nemkov.

“There was another fight that was offered to me, which we agreed on. The second fight (with Anderson), the PFL announced the fight before we agreed to it. Afterwards, we started negotiating. Because there was a possibility that we would fight if the money was different, if the contract was different.”

At this point in Nemkov’s career there must be something to gain for him to consider a fight. Now that he’s a heavyweight he has no interest in moving down to fight at 205, and Anderson lacks the heavyweight experience to be considered a contender for that title.

“if he would fight someone else and he would be (ranked) and it was going to be a fight with a belt on the line or something else that I could gain out of it,” Nemkov said. The two have already fought before. “It was a pretty easy fight. He likes to run his mouth and he does it best.”

Vadim Nemkov faces Tim Johnson this Saturday night at PFL Road To Dubai: Champions Series.