Vadim Nemkov’s first Bellator title defense is in the books.
The Bellator light heavyweight champion defeated challenger Phil Davis in a rematch that headlined Friday’s Bellator 257 in Uncasville, Conn. Nemkov (14-2 MMA, 6-0 BMMA) outpointed Davis (22-6 MMA, 9-3 BMMA) in a unanimous decision that read 48-47 across all three judges’ scorecards.
The championship bout was part of the Bellator light heavyweight grand prix. Nemkov advances to the semifinal and will take on the winner of Anthony Johnson vs. Yoel Romero, which is set to go down on May 7.
In the first round, both fighters remained standing and no one attempted to take the action to the ground. On the feet, neither fighter landed anything significant. However, the champion was busier than Davis and landed more shots.
The second round is where the action picked up, as Nemkov was able to drop Davis with an uppercut and force him into survival mode. Davis did a great job at avoiding further damage and pressed Nemkov against the cage long enough to recover, but Nemkov outstruck him for the rest of the round.
The third round, Davis did a better job at pressing forward and forcing action, but Nemkov still managed to land cleaner and stay a little busier. The champion controlled most of the action on the feet up to that point of the fight.
The fourth was much of a continuation of the third. Nemkov was landing more and had a higher volume of strikes. Davis fell behind but did manage to wake up the champion late in the fourth. With about a minute left, Davis connected with a right hand that slightly stunned Nemkov. In the following exchanges, Davis connected clean a couple more times but didn’t significantly hurt the Russian. It was likely Davis’ best round.
In the final round, Davis attempted to capitalize on the momentum of the end of the fourth. He pressed the action and was looking more aggressive, making the fight a lot closer and even having a slight edge. It was an admirable attempt, but it came too late as Nemkov had done enough to steal the early rounds of the fight.
Nemkov remains unbeaten under the Bellator banner. He won the Bellator 205-pound title stopping Ryan Bader in the second round back in August. Nemkov is currently on a seven-fight winning streak. His last loss came to fellow Bellator light heavyweight Karl Albrektsson back in 2016 at Rizin FF 1.
Davis saw a three-fight winning streak come to an end. He’s 5-2 in his last seven outings with the two defeats coming to Nemkov as he has previously lost to the Russian in a split decision back in 2018.
Official Bellator 257 results include:
