Corey Anderson on how he sees Vadim Nemkov rematch playing out at Bellator 288: ‘There is no secret that when I fight you, I’m going to get you to the ground’
There are very high stakes heading into this weekend’s Bellator Light Heavyweight championship clash.
During the Bellator 288 virtual media call. I got to ask Corey Anderson, who fights Vadim Nemkov in a rematch this Friday for the Light Heavyweight championship his thoughts on how the first fight took place and how he sees the rematch going down for the gold.
“The thoughts on my mind (at the end of the fight) was that he was done. Like I said in the (post-fight interview) I broke him, he was done and the only reason the headbutt happened is the initial thought was finishing it with ground and pound, make him carry my weight, shoot on him, get him down then we’re gonna open him up and finish him in the early 4th.”
“In the last 20 seconds, he started fighting, throwing submissions, defending. And when I passed guard, I heard him do that deep sigh which is a sign that nothing’s working or he is getting tired. I was like ‘alright, well he gave me something.’ so I opened up for a second, I sat up, he had his foot on my leg, kicked it out and tried getting away from the elbow and as I was dropping with my head coming down too, we clashed head immediately.”
My thought was, ‘I am about to finish this fight here and then that happens’ That’s why I tapped my head cause (referee Frank Trigg) is like ‘keep going!’ and you hear commentary say that was a clean shot, but for me I sat up and said ‘no, that was my head’ and if I did not say that I feel it would’ve kept going, I could’ve ended it and won.”
Anderson said this about his thoughts on the rematch and any early predictions he can give on it.
For the next fight, I don’t plan on going out there and (shooting for a takedown), because he knows I got the takedown advantage so 100 percent he’s trained and I am not gonna end up like Ben Askren against Jorge Masvidal, you go out there, shoot, get hit with a knee. You gotta be smarter than that, you gotta set it up, so when I go for the takedown, it will be set up when I see the opportunity, If I don’t see it then I am prepared to strike if I have to unless he starts going down.”
“There is no secret that when I fight you, I am going to get you to the ground and I can. They will tell you when you’re fighting me, at some point he will shoot and get you to the ground so it’s the first thing they work on.”
Nemkov defeated Ryan Bader at Bellator 244 to become the new Bellator Light Heavyweight champion in 2020. Since then he has successfully defended against Phil Davis and Julius Anglickas. He has a pro MMA record of 15-2, 10 of those wins coming by knockout, 3 by submission and he’s gone the distance twice in his career.
Since leaving the UFC, Anderson has finished Melvin Manhoef, Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov and Bader by TKO to show that there are levels to his game and he wants nothing more than to hold up the gold at the end of the night vs. Nemkov.
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