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).
More must-reads: