The light heavyweight champion Vadim Nemkov survived an early scare before retaining his title in a dominant fashion against Julius Anglickas at Bellator 268.
The crowd inside the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona briefly thought they were about to witness a shock when Julius Anglickas, who was playing as a replacement for quarter-final winner Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson, knocked the champion with a vicious right hand inside the opening minutes of the fight.
However, it turned out to be one-way traffic for the remainder of the fight as the 29-year-old Nemkov went on to dominate the action until he forced Anglickas to submit to a Kimura armlock within the last seconds of the fourth round.
In his post-match interview, Vadim Nemkov explained, “He caught me, but I wasn’t knocked down. I just kinda fell.”
The Champion added, “The reason I went more to grappling was because he’s got a hard head. I hit him with a few good shots and realised it’s not going to happen, so I decided to go with submissions.”
Nemkov then revealed the secret behind his submission finish as he switched techniques on his opponent after unsuccessfully attempting to force the tap with armbars.
Nemkov’s victory improved his record to 15 wins, two losses and cemented his status as the man to beat in Bellator’s talent-stacked 205lb division.
The victory took the Stary Oskol native advance to the final of the Bellator light heavyweight grand prix, where he will take on former UFC contender Corey Anderson for the tournament title.
