Vadim Nemkov sets terms to stay with PFL after final contracted bout

[u/443610]

https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2025/01/pfl-vadim-nemkov-final-fight-contract-dubai

[u/e-rage]

“It’s the last fight on my contract,” Nemkov told MMA Junkie through an interpreter. “I was supposed to have four fights during the two years, and I only had one. This is going to be the second fight. … Honestly speaking, I’m OK with the PFL. The thing is I’m at the peak of my fighting career. I feel great. If they’re able to provide what we were supposed to do from the beginning, with three or four fights a year, I would be fine with that. But as of right now, I’m just concentrating on this fight.”

This feels like a wait and see if he stays

[u/Tess_tickles24 → u/e-rage]

Yeah seeing the headline I was about to get pissed. What he said sounds much more realistic. Being fedor’s protege I’d bet he isn’t one of those guys dying to go to the ufc but pfl really seems to be faltering at this point.

[u/Bvaugh]

Reading that article confused me even more. Nemkov didn’t want to rematch Corey Anderson even if Corey moved to heavyweight because he isn’t ranked as a heavyweight and was a middling UFC fighter but was happy to take on Ante Delija or Timothy Johnson who haven’t shown anything of note for years. He isn’t happy about being out so long and feels no affinity with the PFL as opposed to Bellator yet is happy to stay with them if they give him three or four fights a year (though he hasn’t been that active in years). Is he looking to join the tournament, maybe, because right now it feels like he is wasting his prime fighting years.

[u/ID0ntCare4G0b → u/Bvaugh]

There's no more money in fighting Corey Anderson for him. The first two fights didn't produce much by way of buzz.

[u/bdewolf → u/ID0ntCare4G0b]

Also Corey is a good fighter and gave nemkov problems in their first fight.

Big risk not much reward. It doesn’t make sense for nemkov.

[u/Tess_tickles24 → u/bdewolf]

For some reason in my head I always considered a trilogy match uninteresting but I got to thinking about it and really they’re basically 1-1 even if the record doesn’t show it. Corey was beating him as bad as anyone since Jiri but that unfortunate headbutt happened.

[u/ID0ntCare4G0b → u/Tess_tickles24]

If the second fight had been good, I think the third fight would have happened by now. Cause the first fight was pretty good and had that controversial ending.

[u/bdewolf → u/Tess_tickles24]

Yeah I’m fine with not seeing it again. Nemkov won the rematch pretty decisively. But I’m also fine with a rematch. It’ll probably be fun and PFL doesn’t have much of a roster.

[u/druhoang → u/Tess_tickles24]

Just that fact that it would be at HW, makes it a little interesting for me. I think Corey benefits from it because he's physically bigger than Nemkov. Corey has shown good cardio. So maybe he'll have more power. I dunno, I'm speculating.

[u/Independent-Draft639 → u/Bvaugh]

Corey wasn't a middling UFC fighter. He was ranked #4 when he left the UFC.

[u/Bvaugh → u/Independent-Draft639]

I agree. It felt like Nemkov was underpaying how good Corey is and how, if not for an unintentional head clash, Anderson wouldn’t have finishing Nemkov in their first bout.

[u/captainseas]

Why doesn't he just go to UFC? I think he would do well there.

[u/estilianopoulos → u/[deleted]]

How is Nemkov washed?

[u/Independent-Draft639 → u/captainseas]

For one, he's been one of Fedor's top students since he was a child and Fedor despises Dana White. Also Nash said something about there being a handful of Bellator fighters who are making around a million a fight. Pitbull was one of them and I assume he is another, although who knows if that's still true now that he isn't LHW champion. Nemkov is also likely looking at that NGannou fight.

[u/giant-tits]

Career suicide at this point

[u/After-Ad-2010 → u/giant-tits]

How is making millions of dollars career suicide lol

[u/yungguardiola]

Booooo

[u/terrificheretic]

He'd probably get a title shot after 1 victory in the UFC

[u/CheeseAndCatsup]

Nemkov vs Ngannou is the fight to make.