Corey Anderson (16-5, eight finishes) will run it back against Vadim Nemkov (15-2, 13 finishes) on Friday night at Wintrust Arena in Chicago as the two headline Bellator 288 (9 p.m., Showtime) with both Nemkov’s light heavyweight championship and the $1 million prize for winning the Light Heavyweight World Grand Prix on the line. Anderson, who had the upper hand until an accidental clash of heads led to the first fight being declared a no contest in April, recently chatted via Zoom with The Post’s Scott Fontana for this week’s Post Fight Interview Q&A session.
Q: Frankie Edgar has been a major part of your career. With his career coming to a close at UFC 281, what would you say has been the most rewarding part of observing him up close?
A: Frankie is my mentor. He’s the person I look up to. … He’s the person that, if I have questions, I reach out to him; he helps me out. He helped me through a lot of things. If it wasn’t for Frankie, I wouldn’t have the life I have. Frankie changed my life, him picking me first in “The Ultimate Fighter,” where they saw me, [and] invested the time in me.
Corey AndersonBellator MMAQ: It’s been almost six years since you moved on from one of the more memorable nicknames in MMA: Beastin’ 25/8. You have said you’d still answer to it; how often do you hear it these days?
A: I heard it three times today in the gym. If somebody’s talking about working hard, he goes, “That’s Beastin’ 25/8.” It just follows me; that’s it. And it’s OK. I still embrace it. It’s still who I am. It was just no longer the fight nickname. It’s now the company name.
Q: You’re from Illinois, but you’ve trained in New Jersey now for about eight years. What’s best and worst about the Garden State?
A: The best thing: Everybody here [is] on the hustle. I don’t think any of my friends work for anybody. All my close friends are entrepreneurs, are hustling, they [have] got their own business. … The worst thing about New Jersey is everybody’s always late, and everybody’s always rude (laughs).
Q: How did getting some time in the cage with Nemkov inform your training for this rematch?
A: We just took good, and we built off of it. And we took the bad, and we learned from it. The bad was, like, what he caught me with, what I did wrong, and we need to make sure we don’t do that wrong. We got away with that right hand being down in that moment. He could’ve threw a punch or kick that would have cost you. We gotta make sure that doesn’t happen. Or, if I threw a kick or something, it was just slow. We gotta speed that kick up. So, we took all the things we did bad and built off it. But that’s not just in that fight; we do that with every fight. … It’s an old fight now. We’re not worried about that fight. We’re not going into fights expecting the same thing to happen, but we’re going to take all the info and intel that we picked up from that fight — and the intel we know he picked up for me — and we got to just change it, just a little bit, to the fact we’re gonna throw him off a little bit different.
Q: What would mean more for you: Winning the Bellator light heavyweight title or winning the $1 million prize that comes with capturing the Grand Prix crown?
A: Recognition and being a champion. That’s it. That’s all I ever came in the game for. Before I left the UFC, I sat down with those guys and told them, “I don’t care about earning money. I don’t care about being exciting to get more money. I just want to get the belt. I’ve earned my shot at the belt. Let me get that; that’s all I want. I want to go out and earn it. ‘Oh, we can’t until you get more exciting. We’re gonna get viewers and stuff.'” I don’t care about the viewers. I don’t care about fame. I went to go pick up my suit, and they go, “Corey’s famous.” I’m like, “Don’t say that.” “Say what?” “I’m well known.” People know me more because I’m on TV, but I hate the word famous. I don’t want to be famous. I don’t want to be well known. People post in the comments, like, “Oh, Corey, you look homeless.” That’s good. Mission accomplished. I don’t want anybody to know who I am when I’m out. That’s the reason why I dress the way I dress. I want you to walk right past me like another person. Don’t — I don’t mind an autograph, but I don’t want you to be drawing attention to me in public. You know what I mean? I literally just want to get the belt, put it on the wall, come home. I can tell my family every day, “I’m the best.” My kids grow up, and I can share that memory with them. “Yeah, we won this. When we went to Chicago that time, y’all don’t remember, but when we took that business trip is when we won.” That’s what it’s about for me: being the best. Everything else is hogwash.
Q: Do you recall your first experience watching MMA?
A: My first experience watching mixed martial arts was watching Matt Hughes versus GSP [Georges St-Pierre], the second [fight]. … Matt Hughes went to the junior college I went to. At the time, my brother watched fighting, used to play the UFC game. He’s a huge fan of Carlos Newton and all those guys. But I never paid any attention to it till one weekend, my team was like, “Yo, we’re going to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch some fights.” I’m like, “What fights?” I’m just bored in my dorm. I’m like, “I’ll go.” And that’s my first time seeing it. Then shortly after, I met Matt Hughes myself; he’s coming in to work out with us. Him, Robbie Lawler, and all the guys from H.I.T. Squad would come down. And even then, I had no interest. I never really paid attention much after that. The next fight I watched was Anderson Silva versus Chael Sonnen, when Anderson Silva submitted him with that triangle with [1:50] left. And I remember going into “The Ultimate Fighter,” when everybody’s talking about all these fights and stuff, I had started fighting but I still wasn’t watching fighting. Frankie Edgar was probably the first — other than Matt Hughes — big-name guy I actually had an interaction with. And then after that, there was like, “Oh, Renzo Gracie is here.” I’m like, “Who is Renzo Gracie?” “Are you kidding me (laughs)?” So for me, it wasn’t until after “The Ultimate Fighter” [that] I really got into it.
Corey Anderson (right) and Vadim Nemkov pose ahead of Bellator 277 on April 14, 2022.Lucas NoonanQ: Typical walkaround weight between fights?
A: About 235, 240 [pounds]. Depends on if I’m heavy training or if I’m heavy lifting.
Q: Typical weight on fight night?
A: I like to walk in about 225
Q: Favorite post-fight meal?
A: It depends where we are. We’re gonna be in Chicago, so I’m gonna go to Lou Malnati’s and get me a whole deep dish to myself, you know what I’m saying? And then I’m gonna go over to Portillo’s and get me an Italian combo, and we’re gonna go somewhere else. I got one of my Korean buddies there, so he got his family out there that owns a Korean restaurant; we’re gonna go hit that (laughs). So I’m gonna hit a little bit of everything. But it depends on where we are and what the state is known for.
Q: What’s the coolest technique in combat sports?
A: Blast double, man, Ain’t nothing cooler than a blast double. You ever seen another man take another man off his feet, just by shooting on him? That’s just sexy.
