“He went to the army as a boy and came back – he looks like a peasant.” Fedor’s student on the verge of a tough fight – what his boxing coach says

Nemkov (14-2) and Anderson (16-5) are completely different as athletes, but similar in their combination of strength and popularity. Vadim remains in the shadows in Russia, although he brought the Bellator belt here, staging several spectacular fights in America. Anderson has lost just nine fights to UFC champion Jan Blachowicz in the past five years, leaving the promotion 10-5.

Speaking in the UFC from 2014 to 2020, former wrestler Anderson beat Glover Teixeira, Ilir Latifi, Johnny Walker and the same Blachowicz in their first fight.

By the age of 30, Nemkov and Anderson had become two strong, hard-hitting and very dangerous (up to 93 kg) light heavyweights by planet Earth standards. Their battle looked like a collision of iron-laden trains, and that metaphor still proved too transparent: in April of this year, the fighters collided heads, the fight was stopped without declaring a winner. Fedor Emelianenko, directly in the cage, told Anderson “you didn’t win”, and the American a little later gave something like “this guy (Fedor Emelianenko) shouldn’t take care of his own business”.

Nemkov has been training with the Emelianenko team since he was 16 years old.

“In terms of boxing, he didn’t come at all, because he didn’t,” says Alexander Michkov, coach of Fedor’s boxing team. – He also participated in judo and sambo competitions. He trained with us for about six months, then he joined the army and grew up in the army: both mentally and physically very strong. He grew taller, expanded… He left as a kid, and became like a peasant. And psychologically too, it has changed a lot. The army gave him a good boost. After the army he started studying and things got better.

– Can we say that after Fedor you already trained Vadim differently, because you understood that everything from boxing, in principle, is not necessary in MMA?

— Yes, there were no particular personal differences. There is, of course, an individual approach, depending on the data. But if we take it as a whole, then the tasks in the group are still common, and then there was a correction in the process of formation.

– If we imagine that we put boxing gloves on Vadim and ask him to perform at a boxing tournament. What level would that be?

– Here, in his current form, if he had trained for a few months just for boxing, then he would have won an international class “A” tournament. He has good boxing technique.

Michkov immediately noted that he was not ready to talk about the current formation. When Vadim was preparing for the first fight with Anderson, the tournament was repeatedly postponed, and Nemkov trained for almost five months. So he was physically exhausted. The last few months fell on the beginning of the SVO, Vadim served as an emergency in the special forces of the GRU, and, as he said in several interviews, he was in contact with people who entered the direction of Kharkov . So he was psychologically exhausted.

In July, Vadim’s teammate Kirill Sidelnikov in an interview with admitted to advising Nemkov to train with other people so as not to get technically exhausted: “Yes, I told him, we don’t can give you nothing new here. Try a place to train with the base fighters. And for this training, Nemkov first went to Thailand to Anatoly Malykhin (winner of the Russian championship in freestyle wrestling), then joined the American Top Team.

– Previously, Vadim was often tired at the start of the battle and failed at the endings. Have you noticed this in training? – one more question to Michkov

– He had such a problem – he started vomiting on the spot. And in Japan, when he fought, he tried his best so that you could barely lift him. But it seems they agreed that the forces had to be calculated. Now he does not allow the mistakes of such a plan.

– Fedor has a cool straight cross, with which he has already let down several people. What is the best shot of Vadim Nemkov?

– Why does Fedya manage to hit a cross like that – it’s purely psychological … You need to have a “good psyche” to get through this blow. Beating towards the strongest right hand – here you have to try your luck. Not everyone can do it and not everyone succeeds. Plus, you need speed. Fedya has great speed even now, at her age. Vadim does not have such a crown, if you take his hands.

– Emelianenko has multiple one-hit knockouts. Another of your students, Valentin Moldavsky, whom you yourself cited as an example, is bad at “dropping people”. What’s wrong with Nemkov?

“I think Vadim is here. [по способности ронять людей] right in the middle between Valentin and Fedor.

– When Fedor fought Ryan Bader, Bader landed one of his best front punches. He points the way, then with a step strikes the side. Did you, as a boxing trainer, see the problem with this punch?

– Bader only has one crown, he didn’t just hit Fedya with it. We asked our sparring partners to hit this punch. They directly asked them to do much the same as Bader’s beats. At almost every training session they asked to attack Vadim with this move, so he was ready for it.

– Some MMA fighters like to train according to the rules of boxing, ie in shoes and in the ring. Do you do this? Does Vadim or Fedor have boxers?

No, they weren’t wearing boxers. First, they don’t. And even Fedya, when training, also did not wear with boxers, even with professionals. After all, boxers are traumatic for wrestling. And now Vadim, Viktor Nemkov (older brother. – ), other guys, if they do some kind of fight with boxers, then usually barefoot.