The semifinals of the Bellator light heavyweight grand prix have a
date and a venue.
The promotion announced Saturday that Vadim
Nemkov vs. Anthony
Johnson and Ryan Bader
vs. Corey
Anderson will take place on Oct. 16 at the Footprint Center in
Phoenix, Ariz. The main card airs on Showtime at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m.
PT, while prelims stream on the Bellator MMA YouTube channel, the
Showtime Sports YouTube channel and Pluto TV beginning at 7 p.m.
ET/4 p.m. PT. Addtional bouts will be announced at a later
date.
Nemkov claimed the 205-pound belt with a second-round TKO of
Ryan
Bader at Bellator 244 last August before outpointing Phil Davis in
the quarterfinals of the grand prix at Bellator 257 on April 16.
The 29-year-old Russian is currently on an eight-bout winning
streak.
Johnson returned to action for the first time since 2017 at
Bellator 258, where he survived some early adversity to score a
second-round knockout of
Jose Augusto Azevedo Barros on May 7. The 37-year-old “Rumble”
is a two-time light heavyweight title challenger in the UFC and
owns wins over the likes of Glover
Teixeira, Bader, Alexander
Gustafsson, Antonio
Rogerio Nogueira, Davis and Andrei
Arlovski.
After losing his belt to Nemkov, Bader rebounded to take a
five-round verdict over Lyoto
Machida in the opening round of the light heavyweight bracket.
The 38-year-old Power MMA Team product is the promotion’s reigning
heavyweight champion but hasn’t defended the crown since a bout
against Cheick Kongo
resulted in a no contest at Bellator 226 in September 2019.
Anderson has been victorious in six of his last seven professional
outings, a run that includes finishes of Melvin
Manhoef and Dovletdzhan
Yagshimuradov under the Bellator MMA banner — the latter of
which allowed “Overtime” to advance to the 205-pound semifinals.
Anderson went 10-4 in the UFC before signing with the Scott
Coker-led organization.