Vadim Nemkov was anxious to fight after sitting out for the past 11 months but he claims an announcement he was set to face Corey Anderson on Jan. 25 was simply premature.

The former Bellator light heavyweight champion was initially slated to face PFL veteran Ante Delija on the card, but Delija suffered an injury that prevented him from competing. Just after Delija fell out, the PFL announced Nemkov would run it back with Anderson after they clashed twice previously at 205 pounds.

But then Anderson revealed that the fight with Nemkov wasn’t happening and he put the blame back on the Russian for initially accepting the matchup before deciding against it. For his part, Nemkov says he never actually accepted Anderson as an opponent but PFL announced the fight anyways.

“We didn’t even consider him as an opponent to begin with,” Nemkov told MMA Fighting. “But when it was announced, we talked to PFL, we asked them to renegotiate the contract, offer better money or ask for the contract to be for a title fight let’s say, for the heavyweight division title with the belt on the line but the PFL refused to do so.

“So that fight didn’t make any sense. You’ve been around for a while, you know every fight has to make sense.”

Nemkov was losing to Anderson during their initial encounter back in April 2022 but an accidental clash of heads and a gruesome cut led to the fight being stopped and declared a no-contest. A rematch happened six months later with Nemkov thoroughly dominating Anderson over five rounds to win a unanimous decision.

He then defended his light heavyweight title with a win over UFC veteran Yoel Romero before announcing plans to move to heavyweight after revealing that the weight cut to get down to 205 pounds was becoming too difficult for him.

Nemkov hoped his next fight would give him a chance to take a step forward in the heavyweight division after he tore through former PFL champion Bruno Cappelozza in his debut. He admits a third fight against Anderson just didn’t do anything for him unless the PFL made it worth his while.

“Honestly speaking it’s from the perspective of what I can get out of this fight,” Nemkov explained. “There’s nothing that I can gain from it. There was another fight that was offered to me, which we agreed on. The second fight [with Corey Anderson], the PFL announced the fight before we agreed to it. Afterwards, we started negotiating. Because there was a possibility that we would fight if the money was different, if the contract was different.

“I definitely showed all my skills. I think I declassified him in the second fight where he was extremely frustrated. He lost four rounds out of five. He got knocked down. I don’t think there’s anything for me to gain out of this fight. First of all, he’s not a heavyweight. He never fought at heavyweight. He’s not rated at heavyweight. So there was more questions than answers with that fight. There was no point in that fight at all.”

Nemkov believes he already showed what he can do against Anderson in the rematch but with no plans to return to the light heavyweight division, he doesn’t see the need to revisit that fight again.

“Honestly if he would fight someone else and he would be in [the rankings] and it was going to be a fight with a belt on the line or something else that I could gain out of it, but at the moment I [already beat] him,” Nemkov said. “It was a pretty easy fight. He likes to run his mouth and he does it best. He [should] get prepared better next time.”

Nemkov is now scheduled to face UFC, Bellator and PFL veteran Tim Johnson in the co-main event on Saturday in what is set up as the final bout on his current deal with the promotion.

There’s been a lot of talk that Nemkov was only interested in fighting, winning and then moving on from the PFL, but the Russian says he’s not opposed to returning to the organization — under the right circumstances.

“Honestly, it all depends on the PFL,” Nemkov said. “If they’re going to give me good fights, good names but I have to stay active. I can’t fight once a year. This is something I cannot afford to do. So if they’re going to give me good contracts, good names, I’m ready to stay.”

It’s impossible for Nemkov to avoid potential questions about leaving the PFL and signing with an organization like the UFC because he’s never fought there before. Nemkov made it clear that he’s not planning on returning to 205 pounds so his future remains at heavyweight whether that’s in PFL, UFC, or anywhere else.

That said, Nemkov is open to staying with the PFL but he can’t deny his potential interest in eventually competing in the UFC.

“Of course, the UFC has a lot of great heavyweights that I would love to face,” Nemkov said. “It’s definitely exciting and it would definitely be something I would be interested in.”