Vadim Nemkov isn’t entirely satisfied with how he has been treated since becoming a PFL fighter but he isn’t looking for the exit door either. In fact, despite having the last fight on his current contract this weekend, he is happy to stay with the promotion if they’re able to give him what he was initially promised.
The Russian is one of the big names and talents that the PFL acquired when they bought Bellator towards the end of 2023 but embedding that huge influx of new fighters have been far less than seamless. Several fighters have been very vocal about this with major names like Gegard Mousasi and Patrício Pitbull being granted their releases from their contracts as a result.
The promotion is seemingly looking to address this in 2025 by re-shaping their format and Nemkov is seemingly optimistic about the future. One problem did arise when he wasn’t happy with the way that the promotion went about announcing a fight between him and Corey Anderson, who he beat in 2022, without him agreeing to this matchup.
His bout at this weekend’s Road to Dubai event was then changed to be a clash with Tim Johnson who Nemkov believes is a viable opponent for him as he continues to progress as a heavyweight having previously been the Bellator light heavyweight champion. With this settled, the former titleholder’s main complaint, as he detailed in a recent interview with MMA Junkie, is the same issue that the other fighters have had and that’s activity.
Nemkov says that having not fought since February last year where he submitted Bruno Cappelozza, he’s open to the idea of committing his future to the PFL if they’re going to honor their claims of how many fights he will be offered over a set amount of time. At 32-years old, he just wants to be able to regularly compete.
“It’s the last fight on my contract,” Nemkov said 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.”