Opinion: Our True Light Heavyweight King

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I had an interesting choice of topics to write about this week. UFC Fight Night 215—already dreadful with its original marquee attraction intact—devolved into one of the worst shows in company history when Derrick Lewis came down with an illness, resulting in his headliner opposite Sergey Spivak being scrapped. The new Kennedy Nzechukwu-Ion Cutelaba main event featured two men who were not ranked in the Top 15 within the historically weak lightweight division. Worse still, they were on extended losing stretches: Cutelaba had mustered one win in his previous six appearances, and Nzechkwu had dropped two of his past three. I have already addressed how bad these cards have become, and until fans stop being enamored with the magic canvas and the Ultimate Fighting Championship logo, there’s no incentive for the organization to improve. At the rate the UFC is going, it will surpass the lousiness of UFC Fight Night 215 in a few months.

The more compelling subject was based on one of the biggest fights of the year: the showdown between Vadim Nemkov and Corey Anderson at Bellator 288. It’s amusing that Bellator MMA staged their battle for light heavyweight supremacy on Nov. 18. Why? One Dec. 10, Jiri Prochazka meets Glover Teixeira for UFC gold at 205 pounds. In an amusing bit of parallelism, both are rematches of fights that occurred earlier this year. The Bellator bout was significantly more important in terms of quality and the true determination of the best light heavyweight in the world. Let me explain why.

Teixeira is an amazing, inspiring legend for whom I have the highest respect, but let’s be honest: At 43 years of age, the fact that he was the UFC champion and would have successfully defended the title against Prochazka if not for a miracle, last-second submission is a ringing indictment of the UFC light heavyweight division. Consider that Anderson absolutely dominated Teixeira in 2018. Since that meeting, Teixeira has grown slower and older, as is natural for someone who was 38 at the time. Anderson has only gotten better. Rewatching their fight, I think Anderson would have beaten the Brazilian 10 times out of 10. He took Teixeira down at will and battered him on the floor without absorbing a single meaningful strike in return. Phil Davis, a man Nemkov has beaten twice, also defeated a better version of Teixeira in 2014. In fact, lots of guys in Bellator would best Teixeira now. Teixeira has been winning fights with his grappling—an area where Bellator light heavyweights like Anderson, Davis, Nemkov and Ryan Bader are all superior.

I’m a huge Prochazka fan, but no matter how awe-inspiring his striking skills may be, he has an obvious weakness to grappling. This is someone who was repeatedly taken down by Dominick Reyes of all people, which means Anderson and Nemkov could reliably do so, as well. Some will note that Prochazka holds a victory over Nemkov, but that fight could not be less relevant. It occurred in 2015, when both Prochazka and Nemkov were 23 and mere shadows of what they are now. Furthermore, it was the second bout both men had endured in three days as part of the Rizin Fighting Federation grand prix. Even with all those factors in play, it ended indecisively. After the 10-minute first round where Prochazka scored in the standup and Nemkov paired repeated takedowns with ground-and-pound, both men were utterly exhausted. Nemkov decided to retire on his stool. Prochazka forced himself to face Muhammad Lawal in the final, where he was knocked out in the first round as a result.

By contrast, let’s look at Anderson. Not only does he hold a dominant victory over Teixeira, but he is 1-1 against previous light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz. “Overtime” dominated Blachowicz from bell to bell with grappling and ground-and-pound in their first fight, only to get knocked out in the rematch, underscoring Anderson’s one big weakness: his chin. However, Anderson has truly entered his prime since coming to Bellator, punctuated with a fantastic 51-second knockout of Bader—the promotion’s former light heavyweight titleholder and current heavyweight champion. Anderson was also winning his first fight against Nemkov, himself an outstanding grappler, showing again that he has by far the best grappling of anyone at 205 pounds. This is, after all, someone who set a UFC record for takedowns against a two-time NCAA All-American wrestler in Patrick Cummins. Ponder that for a second. Additionally, Anderson boasts excellent, increasingly deadly striking, as seen not only in his demolition of Bader but in a fine first-round destruction of Johnny Walker at UFC 244.

Finally, we come to Nemkov, who proved himself as the No. 1 light heavyweight in the world at Bellator 288. He has consistently overcome elite competition while rarely getting the credit he deserves. He entered Bellator with a bang, knocking out future Professional Fighters League champion and current UFC fighter Philipe Lins in the first round before stopping former Bellator light heavyweight titleholder Liam McGeary with leg kicks in the third. He then shocked everyone by winning a close decision over the aforementioned Davis. Nemkov went on to knock out Bader to win the light heavyweight championship, then proved his first victory over Davis was no fluke when he beat him more decisively in their rematch. However, Nemkov seemingly met his match when he faced the Anderson in April, as the Illinois native was winning a close battle before it was stopped due to an accidental head butt at the end of Round 3. Yet, Nemkov improved in the seven months between fights. He managed to stop Anderson’s takedowns in the rematch and consistently beat him to the punch, all while punishing him with leg kicks. It was a masterful 25-minute performance in which Nemkov displayed countless areas of supreme strength without showing anything that could possibly be considered a weakness and.

Going 4-0 against three different elite opponents is an insane achievement. Hopefully, Nemkov will now get a portion of the respect he deserves, as he has the potential to put together an all-time great resume before he calls it a career.