News Nemkov Sets Terms To Stay With PFL After His Upcoming Final Fight On Contract

[CC27]

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

Vadim Nemkov confirms Saturday’s PFL fight is the last on his contract, but unlike other Bellator champs, he’s not adamant on leaving.

mmajunkie.usatoday.com

Vadim Nemkov is keeping an open mind about continuing his career with PFL beyond Saturday’s fight, but only if the company can fulfill its promises.


According to former Bellator light heavyweight champion Nemkov (17-2), his PFL Champions Series: Road to Dubai heavyweight co-main event with Tim Johnson (18-10) is the final bout on his current contract. The fight takes place at Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai and streams on Max.


Nemkov’s frustrations are in line with other fighters who have spoken out on a lack of activity since PFL acquired Bellator in late 2023. However, unlike some others, such as Patricio Freire, Patchy Mix and more, the Russian said he’s not adamant about leaving so long as things change.


“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.”

‘Little bit weird’ road to Dubai​

Nemkov, 32, hasn’t competed since a second-round submission of Bruno Cappelozza last February. The buildup to this fight has been nothing short of strange, with Nemkov going through three different opponents. The first announcement matchup was Ante Delija, then it shifted to a trilogy bout with Corey Anderson, before ultimately landing on Johnson.


PFL announcing the fight with Anderson rubbed Nemkov in the wrong way the most, as he said he never agreed to it and felt it wasn’t a logical booking.


“The whole situation with this fight was a little bit weird because we got a contract for Delija, and PFL, the moment when they announced the fight, there was no way the fight could happen because he was injured, and he had a surgery,” Nemkov said. “Once the fight was announced by PFL, I got a lot of messages from his fans, family members who said there’s no way that fight would happen.


“From the Corey Anderson perspective on that fight and stuff, he was coming out back-and-forth on my social media, and I saw he was preparing to fight in the heavyweight division. Then in the end it looks like it was kind of a setup, so I felt like if Delija wouldn’t come through, they’re going to give me Anderson. Since the fight was changed last minute, the only thing we asked the PFL is if they would give us a better contract, because it’s a different fight and different fighter. Basically PFL refused to negotiate the new contract for the fight with Corey Anderson.


“The contract negotiations didn’t go through, and the fight didn’t make much sense. I never agreed to the fight to begin with. There were negotiations, we started negotiating, but I don’t even know why the PFL announced that fight. And to be honest, I don’t feel like that fight is good for me at all. He’s not rated at heavyweight. He was kind of a gatekeeper at UFC, and that fight didn’t make sense, and especially without renegotiating the contract it didn’t make sense at all.”


Nemkov said he is content with Johnson as the opponent and is ready to continue to make waves at heavyweight. He was a dominant force in Bellator’s 205-pound division but said he has health issues and is “not looking to cut the weight ever again.”


Whether this will be Nemkov’s final fight under the PFL banner remains to be seen. He felt far more attachment to the now-defunct Bellator brand, and Nemkov said he’s disappointed to see it go.


“I do feel a little bit sad because this is where I begin my journey,” Nemkov said. “I built my name and brand in that company, and they did show really good aspects of my fighting game, so I do feel a little bit sad.”

 

[CC27]

Think he's gonna end up staying in PFL and wasting the final few prime years in that wasteland.

 

[AfroBanana]

Not much interesting stuff there at this point for him. Outside of fighting NNN which is probably a dumb fight to book. Not much left for him @LHW and HW is pretty dull. I’d like to see him spend his best years fighting elsewhere personally.

I was all for him being in Bellator when the LHW had some depth etc but he’s literally beat everyone there and that division has aged out offering few prospects now. No thanks to Anderson 2, Bader 2, Davis 3, Yoel 2 etc. Mousasi moving up at one point might have been cool when he was still dominate @MW.

Jiri 2, Ankalaev, many fights actually @ LHW and HW could make his career much more interesting. He injects excitement into the UFC and into his own career leaving. Fighting these PFLator HW’s or recycled LHW FIGHTS is really nothing to get excited about.

 

[CC27]

Even with a shallow UFC HW div fights with Aspinall, Gane, Jailton, Pav, Volkov, Blaydes, even maybe Alex if he moved up are far more interesting than PFL with Renan, Goltsov, Popov, Ante, a Corey Anderson fight at HW, Bader again.

The only thing maybe you can lure him back with is the Francis fight but PFL is already telling you Francis will box next and who knows if he does another mma fight with PFL this year. Think he ends up staying with them either resigning or PFL matching a UFC deal so he'll just get one or two fights a year fighting whoever.

 

[Doctor Grudge]

Def would be better for him to be in the UFC in terms of finding people to fight but seeing him fight Ngannou would be exciting.


Are there any ranked 205ers and 265ers in the UFC who are not washed coming off their contracts soon?

 

[TheBrownRanger]

Rather see him at UFC LHW than anything else tbh. Including an Ngannou fight.

With him being on Fedor Team, who knows if the UFC would be interested?

 

[Ara tech]

Nemkov is an elite fighter. He wants to fight every year three times or even four times.

Everytime he fight, he doesn't draw crowd, doesn't sell PPV, doesn't generate money. To make him fight a lot would signifty losing more money and not to be sustainable. The same goes for Patrictio.

 

[moreorless87]

As said really a fight with Francis is the main reason to stay.

 

[skylolow]

To me he has more or less ran his course in Bellator/PFL. He is fighting Tim Johnson at this stage of his career pretty much confirms this.

I say go to the UFC and fight at LHW. Hell, if he doesn't want to cut fight at HW both divisions offer some good match ups. He only has maybe 3 to 5 years of high level fighting left in him. Wasting another couple years in PFL isn't a smart move.

 

[BowserJr]

Think he's gonna end up staying in PFL and wasting the final few prime years in that wasteland.

Mam I hope not. There is no one for him there other than maybe Ngannou at HW

I'd rather see him rematch Jiri, fight Jan, Ank Poatan, Khalil, maybe even Aspinall

 

[CC27]

Mam I hope not. There is no one for him there other than maybe Ngannou at HW

I'd rather see him rematch Jiri, fight Jan, Ank Poatan, Khalil, maybe even Aspinall

He's not going back to LHW it seems due to I guess a health issue cutting weight so its HW from now on.

 

[David R]

Ask for a ufc offer at least. If no offer or too low stay. But any offer IMO is better than staying.

 

[BeardedJudo]

One of the only fights I’d be interested in at PFL is a rematch with Karl Albrektsson. I know it doesn’t make sense right now, but it would be nice to see him get that one back.

 

[SalvadorAllende]

Kind of sad.. I wanted to see how he mixed up in the UFC.


He can fight Francis "Fighters Union Leader Altuirst" Ngannou for 2M.

 

[MMAddict21]

Seems like Nemkov isn’t a free agent after all. PFL analyst Ian Parker says he’s heard from PFL higher ups that Nemkov still has 2 fights left on his contract.

 

[CC27]

Seems like Nemkov isn’t a free agent after all. PFL analyst Ian Parker says he’s heard from PFL higher ups that Nemkov still has 2 fights left on his contract.

wonder if its one of those he has fights left but the time limit is gonna expire soon thing. Dont really see how Nemkov and his team would fuck that up with two fights left.

 

[Thesnake101]

wonder if its one of those he has fights left but the time limit is gonna expire soon thing. Dont really see how Nemkov and his team would fuck that up with two fights left.

Contract is expiring at the end of 2025.