One of the main questions in the career of the legendary Fedor Emelianenko was “What if he goes to the UFC?” Fans argued about this, discussed the achievements of the Last Emperor, experts reflected on the importance of performances under the auspices of the UFC, and the head of the promotion, Dana White, refused to fully recognize Fedor’s greatness because he never moved to their league.
Emelianenko finished his career and all questions about the UFC were inherited by his most successful student, Vadim Nemkov. He, like his teacher, also started a great career in Japan, and in recent years he has performed in Bellator, where he has achieved great success and has achieved a very good unbeaten streak. True, at the same time Vadim seems to have reached the ceiling.
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Nemkov cleaned up the light heavyweight division, taking the title from Ryan Bader, Fedor Emelianenko’s abuser, and making four successful defenses of the belt. After this, Vadim, for health reasons, decided to move to heavyweight due to heavy weightlifting. It would seem that a dominant champion from another division and the number one P4P Bellator rises, this should pave the way for him to the title. But what do we really get? A meaningless fight with Bruno Cappelozza at a prestigious tournament and a downtime of more than six months. Moreover, it is not Nemkov’s fault, he is ready to fight, but there was no talk of a fight with Bader, who is now the heavyweight champion.
It is not surprising that Nemkov is categorically unhappy with this attitude. The most he was offered was to secure the fight between Renan Ferreira and Francis Ngannou. And Nemkov himself is dissatisfied: “It is not known when Bader will be released. I don’t really follow him. I am waiting for details from the organization. There is no grudge against him. This is a question for the promotion. Besides him, there are fighters who moved from Bellator to the PFL, fought during the season and lost. At least they would have given some kind of fight. But they don’t give anything. No fights are offered. Resentment towards the organization. If Bader is busy with the movies, then either fight for the interim title or a regular fight.”
This season, PFL broadcasts are available on OKKO.
Nemkov is ready to fight any fight, not necessarily for the title, but there is no opportunity to compete and the Russian is losing, perhaps, one of the most valuable resources for an athlete – time. After PFL bought Bellator, several fighters already complained that they had no fights. This, by the way, also shows how far the PFL is from the UFC, where such miscalculations are not allowed.
Against this background, the top Bellator fighter, according to his P4P rating, is already looking the other way: “Thoughts about the UFC? Well, of course. When will the negotiations take place? Now, first of all, we have to survive until the end of November. We will decide based on the facts. As the questions come in. When I signed the contract, it was for two years. Or four fights. The two years expire at the end of November or beginning of December. What will happen next, I can’t say for sure yet. We are now talking to the organization to get some details and plans for the development of future performances. Where will it be more interesting to perform: in the UFC or Bellator? First of all, we need to look at the conditions so that they are beneficial for me.”
Objectively, Nemkov has outgrown the Bellator level and there are no major challenges for him within this organization. And Vadim is unlikely to go to the Grand Prix of the PFL regular season. All this will inevitably lead to stagnation of development and subsequent degradation of capabilities. And this is not Nemkov’s last dream. The transition to the UFC is a good story both in sporting and media terms. This can be presented as the arrival of Fedor’s heir to the best organization in the world, and there will be many new challenges for Vadim.
Vadim Nemkov and Fedor Emelianenko
Photo: From the personal archive of Vadim Nemkov.
Nemkov is a tall enough fighter to shake up the top ten UFC heavyweights. Moreover, Vadim will handle most of them with great confidence and may well find himself in the race for the belt in a year or two. The Russian has it all going for him; he is versatile enough to compete in every aspect with the best UFC heavyweights.
At one point, Fedor failed to do this and left some questions unanswered, but Nemkov has a good chance to partially correct this and show himself at the highest level. Now Vadim is as close as possible to this very important step.
