Vadim Nemkov is the last fighter to have held the Bellator MMA light heavywieght title and the current PFL heavyweight competitor has re-signed with Professional Fighters League for multiple years. PFL figurehead Donn Davis took to his personal X page to signal boost the announcement of the new contractual agreement with one of MMA’s top pound-for-pound fighters today.
Davis teased potential big fights for the protege of Fedor Emelianenko with the likes of Francis Ngannou, Renan Ferreira, and Oleg Popov. The news was first put out there as a report by Fighttime.ru prior to Davis’ announcement confirming things on social media.
In an interview with the Russian outlet, Nemkov did confirm that there were some talks with the UFC prior to his eventual decision to return to the PFL Smart Cage. In a translated passage via Google Translate from the referenced interview, Nemkov said [via Sherdog],
“I have signed a new contract with the PFL now. When the previous one ended, there were negotiations with the UFC, but there were misunderstandings, plus the conditions were twice as bad as in the PFL. If I were 20-25 years old, I would probably go to the UFC, but they made it clear to me that they are not particularly interested in fighters from Russia.”
Vadim Nemkov’s journey re-signing with PFL
That being said, while Vadim Nemkov did re-sign with PFL, he did not rule out a potential foray to the UFC once this contract wraps up as Nemkov stated [via Sherdog],
“If I manage to win here against everyone and everything, then I think in two years, perhaps, there will be a different attitude.”
The 33-year-old has an impressive resume in mixed martial arts with four successful defenses of his 205 pound Bellator MMA crown and Nemkov has transitioned to heavyweight once Bellator MMA was acquired by PFL. The Russian standout has put together wins over former PFL champion Bruno Cappelozza and ex-UFC vet Tim Johnson since moving up in weight.
Nemkov has notched wins over the lieks of Ryan Bader, Corey Anderson, Yoel Romero, Phil Davis twice, Rafael Carvalho, and Liam McGeary to name but a few. Also of note, per the Fighttime.ru report, Nemkov is targeting a November return to the PFL.
