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Corey Anderson has learned valuable lessons from his past two rematches.
Anderson (19-6-1) defends his light heavyweight title in a rematch against Dovlet Yagshimuradov (25-7-1) on Oct. 3 in the PFL Champions Series: Dubai co-main event from Coca-Cola Arena. Anderson won their first fight in April 2021 by third-round TKO during the quarterfinals of the light heavyweight grand prix at Bellator 257.
Yagshimuradov has since gone 7-1 and won the 2024 PFL light heavyweight season by knocking out Impa Kasanganay in 58 seconds.
“He’s been wanting the rematch since right after the fight,” Anderson told MMA Junkie Radio of Yagshimuradov. “Shortly after, I was doing something online. I’d seen I was tagged, and he had asked for a rematch. Then, in the beginning of the PFL tournament, they asked the guys if you could get one fight, one dream fight, who would it be? No hesitation, he said rematch Corey Anderson. So here we are.”
Anderson, a former UFC 205-pound contender, has been a part of two rematches against Jan Blachowicz and Vadim Nemkov – both of which didn’t go his way. Now that he has to fight Yagshimuradov a second time, Anderson knows not to underestimate his opponent.
“I’ve learned twice from that – Nemkov one, Jan one,” Anderson said. “Dominated both, wasn’t even close. Just dog walked them. Jan two, Nemkov two, you saw what happened. So, you go out there with that confident mindset and you go, ‘They can’t hold water to me no more,’ then they come back and shock you.
“One thing you hear a lot of MMA fighters, I’ve talked to Eddie Alvarez and other fighters, they all say, ‘The hardest fight to prepare for is a rematch,’ especially in the way you dominated those guys. You dominated from start to finish, just mauled them. So, they got all that film to prepare for and what do you have? What do you have to look for? What do you have to study? Especially the Nemkov fight, there was no fights in between. There was no other film to watch than my fight with him.”
