This was the moment to which
Corey
Anderson pointed when he parted ways with the
Ultimate Fighting Championship and chose to sign on
Bellator
MMA’s dotted line.
“The Ultimate Fighter” Season 19 winner will challenge
Vadim
Nemkov for the light heavyweight championship when their grand
prix final serves as the
Bellator 277 co-feature on Friday at the SAP Center in San
Jose, California. A $1 million prize goes to the winner. Anderson
enters the cage on the strength of a three-fight winning streak. He
last appeared at Bellator 268, where he torched
Ryan Bader
with punches just 51 seconds into their tournament semifinal on
Oct. 16. Nemkov, meanwhile, has rattled off nine straight wins. He
punched his ticket to the grand prix final in October, when he
submitted
Julius
Anglickas with a kimura in the fourth round of their Bellator
268 headliner.
As Nemkov and Anderson move toward their hotly anticipated
encounter at 205 pounds, a look at some of the numbers that have
accompanied them to this point:
29: Years of age for Nemkov, who was born on June 20, 1992 in
Belgorod, Russia.
3: Submission victories for Nemkov, accounting for 21% of his
career total (14). His methods of choice: two rear-naked chokes and
one kimura. Nemkov owns nine other victories by knockout or
technical knockout and two more by decision.
602: Days spent by Nemkov as the undisputed Bellator light
heavyweight champion. It ranks as the fourth-longest reign in the
history of the division behind Bader (1,155),
Christian
M’Pumbu (650) and
Liam
McGeary (617).
5: Countries in which Nemkov has fought as a mixed martial artist.
The
Fedor
Emelianenko protege has gone 5-0 in his native Russia, 5-0 in
the United States, 2-2 in Japan, 1-0 in Italy and 1-0 in
Israel.
.854: Cumulative winning percentage between the two men—
Jiri
Prochazka and
Karl
Albrektsson—who have defeated Nemkov. They boast a combined
record of 41-6-1.
32: Years of age for Anderson, who was born in Rockford, Illinois,
on Sept. 22, 1989.
8: Anderson wins by knockout or technical knockout, accounting for
50% of his career total (16). His list of Bellator victims: Bader,
Dovletdzhan
Yagshimuradov and
Melvin
Manhoef. Anderson holds eight other wins by decision.
37: Rounds completed by Anderson as a professional mixed martial
artist. He has gone the distance on nine different occasions and
carries a stellar 8-1 record in those bouts. The lone outlier? A
contentious split decision defeat to former Ultimate Fighting
Championship light heavyweight titleholder
Mauricio Rua
at UFC 198 on May 14, 2016.
9: Consecutive calendar years in which Anderson has fought at least
once. He went 3-0 in 2013, 2-0 in 2014, 2-1 in 2015, 2-1 in 2016,
0-2 in 2017, 3-0 in 2018, 1-0 in 2019, 1-1 in 2020 and 2-0 in
2021.
114: Combined victories between the five men—Rua,
Jan
Blachowicz,
Ovince St.
Preux,
Jimi Manuwa
and
Gian
Villante—who have beaten Anderson. They sport a cumulative .663
winning percentage (114-57-1).