Vadim Nemkov and Corey Anderson both advanced to the semifinals of Bellator’s Light-Heavyweight Grand Prix with wins Friday at Bellator 257.
Nemkov defended his light-heavyweight title against Phil Davis with a five-round unanimous decision in the main event, while Anderson earned a third-round technical knockout of Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov in the co-headliner.
“My plan was to out-strike him today and defend the wrestling,” Nemkov said. “I’m pretty happy with my performance but I had some mistakes and I’m going to work on them for next time. It’s very hard to knock out Phil Davis so I was getting ready for a five round fight and I knew it was going to go the distance. Our conditioning was on point.”
Nemkov, now 6-0 in Bellator, also defeated Davis by three-round split decision in 2018.
The 28-year-old Russian will face the winner of Bellator 258’s co-main event between Yoel Romero and Anthony “Rumble” Johnson.
“Both fighters are very unpredictable,” Nemkov said. “They can strike or wrestle. I’m a champion and I’m ready for whoever wins that fight. It doesn’t matter to me who I face. Both fighters are really good on the ground or standup and it’s going to be a good fight for me either way.”
Anderson is set to face Ryan Bader on the other side of the bracket.
“I love the matchup with Bader,” Anderson said after improving to 2-0 in the Bellator cage. “I love the matchup with anybody in this tournament. I love the matchup with any 205-er in the world because I know how good I am. I’m just going to show the rest of the world that.”
Bader defeated Lyoto Machida at Bellator 256 to earn his semifinal spot.
Jay-Jay Wilson, Steve Mowry and Lance Gibson Jr., all remained undefeated with wins on the preliminary card with Paul Daley, Julia Budd, Raymond Daniels and Mads Burnell also picking up notable victories.
Below are the complete Bellator 257 results:
MAIN CARD
— Vadim Nemkov def. Phil Davis by unanimous decision
— Corey Anderson def. Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov by technical knockout
— Veta Arteaga def. Desiree Yanez by majority decision
— Paul Daley def. Sabah Homasi by technical knockout
PRELIMINARY CARD
— Julia Budd def. Dayana Silva by split decision
— Julius Anglickas def. Gregory Milliard by unanimous decision
— Steve Mowry def. Shaun Asher by technical knockout
— Grachik Bozinyan def. Demarques Jackson by unanimous decision
— Raymond Daniels def. Peter Stanonik by unanimous decision
— Lance Gibson Jr. def. Marcus Surin by unanimous decision
— Karl Albrektsson def. Viktor Nemkov by unanimous decision
— Mads Burnell def. Saul Rogers by submission (rear-naked choke)
— Jay-Jay Wilson def. Pedro Carvalho by technical knockout
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