PFL heavyweight champion Vadim Nemkov thinks his mentor, Fedor Emelianenko, would beat Francis Ngannou if the two ever laced up boxing gloves. He means the Fedor who turned 50 and hasn’t competed since 2023. Nemkov told MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz, through a translator, that the PRIDE legend still has the speed and the power to pull it off.
“If MVP wants to offer [Emelianenko] a boxing fight, I think that’d be good for the fans, too. He’s ready,” Nemkov said. “Believe it or not, he’s still very fast on his feet, very explosive, heavy punch. It’s not easy to hit Fedor, he moves a lot, he has a really good ring movement, so I think he has really good chances against Francis if they box. I think Fedor will win.”
This didn’t come out of nowhere. In a recent interview, Emelianenko shut the door on fighting in MMA again but said boxing Ngannou would be a “real dream.” Nemkov is just the first guy in his camp to say out loud that the dream ends with Fedor’s hand raised.
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The resume gap is wide. Emelianenko’s last fight came nearly four years ago, a loss to Ryan Bader for the Bellator heavyweight title. His last win was five years ago, a quick knockout of Tim Johnson. Ngannou, the former UFC champion, has spent his recent years in much bigger rooms. He boxed Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, then went back to MMA and stopped Philipe Lins with ease on the first MVP MMA card this past May.
Fedor hasn’t stopped putting the gloves on, though. He’s been working with Nemkov in the gym ahead of Saturday’s title defense against Sergey Bilostennyi in Dubai. That’s Nemkov’s last defense before the company continues under the MVP MMA brand in 2027. Nemkov is riding a 14-fight unbeaten streak through Bellator and PFL, with wins over Renan Ferreira, Yoel Romero, Corey Anderson, Phil Davis and Bader.
Bilostennyi has won four of his five fights since moving from Bellator to PFL. Nemkov had a front-row seat for the one loss. He cornered Valentin Moldavsky when Moldavsky beat Bilostennyi in May 2025, and Nemkov said he was already sketching out his own game plan from the corner that night. Since then, Bilostennyi has finished Karl Williams and Renan Ferreira, and Nemkov called him “very worthy of a title shot.” Nemkov said he prepares for five rounds, but he’s hunting a finish wherever it shows up.
On the mentor side, Nemkov couldn’t have been warmer. He called it “a huge honor” to train under a man people line up just to shake hands with.
My take: of course the student picks the master. That’s loyalty, and honestly I’d think less of Nemkov if he hedged. But Ngannou just shared a ring with Fury and Joshua, and Fedor’s most recent outing ended with Bader taking his belt. The “heavy punch” part I believe. Ngannou punches like a dropped piano, though, and gym speed against training partners is a different animal from ring speed against the scariest puncher on the planet. Would I buy it? Instantly, and MVP knows that, which is exactly why this pitch is coming from Fedor’s corner first. The real business happens Saturday in Dubai, where Nemkov needs to get past Bilostennyi before anybody starts booking his coach.
