Vadim Nemkov plans to move to the heavyweight division, which might leave his current Bellator light heavyweight title vacant. Corey Anderson, nonetheless, is more than willing to defend the title in case PFL would push its champ vs champ event with Belaltor’s fighters. And if Anderson is to choose, he is ready to represent Bellator’s 205 division against PFL’s Impa Kasanganay.
Anderson recently expressed frustration over Nemkov’s decision to leave his current class weight to move to the heavyweight. “Overtime” already faced the champ twice in his career, with their first bout ending in a No Contest status while the second one was won by Nemkov. The fighter hopes to get his third chance to defeat Nemkov, but the champ is expected to move to a higher division. Needless to say, the No. 1-ranked fighter is not happy about it.
“I tell everybody scared money don’t make no money,” Anderson told MMA Fighting about Nemkov. “Don’t be acting scared, bro. Just take that risk. Let’s go. You know what’s going to happen. You know I’m preparing. You know it ain’t going to happen the same [as the rematch]. I ain’t going to just wrestle this time. I’m going to put them hands on you. My thought is if you’re going to be scared, go ahead, keep on running. Go to heavyweight. All that extra people talking about ‘he don’t want to fight these people, he done beat everybody.’ No, we’re 1-1. It didn’t go to the scorecards but we’re 1-1.
“It’s a rubber match. He was scared to see what would happen and like I told people, he’d rather just relinquish the belt that actually lose it.”
In line with this, Anderson knows the belt will be left without an owner at Bellator. With this, the fighter wants to step in to defend it against PFL’s light heavyweight fighters. And for Anderson, Kasanganay, one of the top light heavyweight talents of PFL, could be an interesting opponent.
“The night he won the belt I tweeted sign me up,” Anderson said. “Because Nemkov can’t fight 205. They gave him the opportunity to fight me and defend the belt against me. He claimed he can’t make 205 anymore. It would be a dang shame if he said, ‘I can make the weight now.’ Nah, bro, it means you’re scared. You didn’t want to fight me for the third time.
“If that’s the case, it’s only right that I step in for the 205 belt or defend the 205 belt for Bellator. I’m not the champ but if there’s nobody else there, I’m the next guy up. I got it now.”
