The earliest card
No scan on file for Vadim Nemkov's earliest card. Own one? Contribute a scan.
2025 Panini Contenders PFL #16
Nemkov's first trading card, arriving on July 18, 2025 — five years after he took the Bellator light heavyweight title off Ryan Bader and two years after his last Bellator title defence. Bellator had no card licensee for the whole of his championship run, so the entire Bader/Davis/Anglickas/Anderson/Romero era exists only in this retrospective Season Ticket slot. He is listed as a heavyweight, reflecting the PFL move rather than the division he actually ruled.
- Earliest licensed card2025 Panini Contenders PFL #16 High confidence
- First MMA card2025 Panini Contenders PFL #16 High confidence
- First UFC cardNone documented Verified
- First certified autograph2026 Panini Contenders PFL Season Ticket Signatures #1 High confidence
- Recognized rookie cardNone documented High confidence
The evidence behind each
- 2025Earliest licensed card — Checklist Insider's 2025 Panini Contenders PFL checklist prints 'Base Season Ticket (Hobby) #16 - Heavyweight' for him in a 100-card base set. Nothing earlier exists in any checklist or catalogue; a SportsCardsPro catalogue search for a Nemkov Instant card returns no exact match, and Panini's Instant Bellator programme does not list him.
- 2025First MMA card — Same Checklist Insider checklist. His combat sambo career, the Russian regional circuit, M-1 and his entire Bellator light heavyweight title reign produced no cards.
- —First UFC card — His record runs through M-1, Bellator and PFL. No Topps UFC or Panini UFC checklist contains him.
- 2026First certified autograph — Checklist Center and Checklist Insider both list Season Ticket Signatures #1 for him in 2026 Panini Contenders PFL, alongside Championship Moments Signatures #4 /49 and PFL Ink #54 /49 from the same product. He has no autograph in 2025 Panini Contenders PFL — Checklist Insider lists him there only at base #16, Supernatural #8 and Superstar Die-Cuts #8 — and none in 2025 Panini Combat Anthology, where his only entry is base #73.
- —Recognized rookie card — Checklist Insider and Checklist Center show that neither 2025 nor 2026 Panini Contenders PFL uses RC markers anywhere, and 2025 Panini Combat Anthology carries none either. With no UFC career there is no Topps or Panini UFC issue that could act as one.
Key Nemkov cards
10 cards chosen for significance, not completeness; autographs and numbered cards follow below.
Card history
Nemkov is the clearest case in modern MMA of a champion the card industry simply missed. He turned professional in May 2013 out of a four-time combat sambo career, fought in Russia and for M-1, and neither sambo nor the Russian regional circuit produced cardboard. He then took the Bellator light heavyweight title off Ryan Bader in August 2020 and defended it four times against Phil Davis, Julius Anglickas, Corey Anderson and Yoel Romero, and no licensed Bellator trading-card programme is documented at any point before 2024. There is no card of Vadim Nemkov as Bellator champion at all — the entire reign is a blank — and when Panini did begin issuing Bellator-licensed cards in 2024, after PFL's takeover, he was not in them.
His first card came twelve years into his career. 2025 Panini Contenders PFL, released July 18, 2025, gave him three slots — Season Ticket #16 plus the Supernatural and Superstar Die-Cuts inserts at #8 apiece — and no signature: Panini left him off the Season Ticket Signatures checklist entirely. None of it is rookie-flagged, because the product carries no RC logos anywhere and he has no UFC-licensed issue that could serve as one. The base card's ticket ladder runs to Cracked Ice /25, Main Event /10 and a Championship Ticket 1/1, which is as scarce as a 2025 Nemkov gets. Every checklist line calls him a heavyweight, so the division he actually ruled appears on none of his cards.
2025 Panini Combat Anthology, out November 5, added a fourth card at #73 and with it his first genuinely scarce parallels: a seventeen-step ladder from unnumbered Galactic and Silver down through Cracked Ice /25, Gold /10, Squared Circle /8 and Crimson Mask /5 to Black Fireworks and KO 1/1s. He is in the base set only, absent from the product's autograph subsets. Released five weeks before he submitted Renan Ferreira in Lyon, it is the last card issued of him as a challenger.
The inaugural PFL heavyweight title changed his standing in the checklist overnight. 2026 Panini Contenders PFL handed him the lead slot at base #1 across eleven appearances, including Crown Jewels #9 and Championship Contenders #4 — both champion-themed inserts he had not qualified for a year earlier — plus a 2006 Throwback, a Winning Ticket, a Supernatural and two Champion Series Stars lines. Watch the number: Championship Contenders #4 and Championship Moments Signatures #4 are different cards.
That same product finally produced a signature. Season Ticket Signatures #1 is the first certified Nemkov autograph that has ever existed — thirteen years into his career and six after his first world title — with a ladder through Blue Fireworks /99, Main Card /75, Co-Main /49, Cracked Ice /25, Main Event and Gold /10 to a Championship Ticket 1/1. Beside it sit his only two serial-numbered signed cards, Championship Moments Signatures #4 and PFL Ink #54, both held to 49 copies; the former is the first time a Nemkov title win has been put on cardboard with his name on it.
Autographs
3 certified autographs in the archive.
Card eras
A four-time combat sambo world champion out of Fedor Emelianenko's orbit, he turned pro in May 2013 and fought in Russia and for M-1 before Bellator signed him. Sambo produced no trading cards and neither did the Russian regional circuit, so nothing survives from this period.
He took the light heavyweight title off Ryan Bader at Bellator 244 in August 2020 and defended it against Phil Davis, Julius Anglickas, Corey Anderson and Yoel Romero. No licensed Bellator trading-card programme is documented at any point before 2024, so there is no card of Nemkov as Bellator champion — the entire title reign is a blank in the hobby. When the promotion finally got a partner, after PFL bought it in November 2023 and signed with Panini in June 2024, the 2024 Instant Bellator issues did not include him either.
2025 Panini Contenders PFL, out July 18, 2025, finally put him on cardboard: Season Ticket #16 plus Supernatural #8 and Superstar Die-Cuts #8. Three slots, no autograph — Panini left him off the Season Ticket Signatures checklist entirely.
2025 Panini Combat Anthology #73, released November 5, added a fourth card and, with its seventeen-parallel ladder down to Crimson Mask /5, his first genuinely scarce parallels. It is also the last card issued of him as a challenger.
He submitted Renan Ferreira with an arm-triangle in round one at PFL Lyon on December 13, 2025 to win the inaugural PFL heavyweight title, having already moved up from light heavyweight in 2024.
Parallels of this card
Sets
Where Nemkov's key cards come from.
- 20252025 Panini Contenders PFL1 key card
- 20252025 Panini Contenders PFL Supernatural1 key card
- 20252025 Panini Contenders PFL Superstar Die-Cuts1 key card
- 20252025 Panini Combat Anthology1 key card
- 20262026 Panini Contenders PFL1 key card
- 20262026 Panini Contenders PFL Season Ticket Signatures1 key card
- 20262026 Panini Contenders PFL Championship Moments Signatures1 key card
- 20262026 Panini Contenders PFL — PFL Ink1 key card
- 20262026 Panini Contenders PFL Crown Jewels1 key card
- 20262026 Panini Contenders PFL Championship Contenders1 key card
Buying & wanted
- 012026 Panini Contenders PFL Season Ticket Signatures #1 — the first certified Nemkov autograph that has ever existed, with the Cracked Ice Ticket /25 and Main Event Ticket /10 the tiers to ask for
- 022026 Panini Contenders PFL Championship Moments Signatures #4 /49 — the signed inaugural PFL heavyweight title card
- 032025 Panini Contenders PFL #16 in a low-numbered tier (Cracked Ice Ticket /25, Main Event Ticket /10, Championship Ticket 1/1) — his first card, and the only 2025 base with real scarcity
- 042025 Panini Combat Anthology #73 Crimson Mask /5 or Squared Circle /8 — the scarcest unsigned Nemkov cards on the market
Nothing from the archive is currently available.
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Sources & research Verified×10High confidence×6
Every factual claim on this page, the evidence behind it, and an honest confidence level. Where sources disagree the disagreement is kept, not quietly resolved.
Vadim Nemkov's earliest card: 2025 Panini Contenders PFL #16 — Vadim Nemkov.
Nemkov has no rookie card in any designated sense. Panini put no RC logos in Contenders PFL or Combat Anthology, and SportsCardsPro's own card pages for both his 2025 Contenders #16 and his 2026 Contenders #1 record them as not rookies. Because he never fought in the UFC he has no Topps UFC or Panini Prizm UFC issue that could serve as one, and Bellator was unlicensed for the whole of his championship run. The earliest Nemkov card confirmed anywhere is 2025 Panini Contenders PFL Season Ticket #16, from the first hobby product to include him, released July 18, 2025 — so that is recorded as his earliest significant card rather than as an RC.
Nemkov is the clearest case in modern MMA of a champion the card industry simply missed. He turned professional in May 2013 out of a four-time combat sambo career, fought in Russia and for M-1, and neither sambo nor the Russian regional circuit produced cardboard. He then took the Bellator light heavyweight title off Ryan Bader in August 2020 and defended it four times against Phil Davis, Julius Anglickas, Corey Anderson and Yoel Romero, and no licensed Bellator trading-card programme is documented at any point before 2024. There is no card of Vadim Nemkov as Bellator champion at all — the entire reign is a blank — and when Panini did begin issuing Bellator-licensed cards in 2024, after PFL's takeover, he was not in them.
His first card came twelve years into his career. 2025 Panini Contenders PFL, released July 18, 2025, gave him three slots — Season Ticket #16 plus the Supernatural and Superstar Die-Cuts inserts at #8 apiece — and no signature: Panini left him off the Season Ticket Signatures checklist entirely. None of it is rookie-flagged, because the product carries no RC logos anywhere and he has no UFC-licensed issue that could serve as one. The base card's ticket ladder runs to Cracked Ice /25, Main Event /10 and a Championship Ticket 1/1, which is as scarce as a 2025 Nemkov gets. Every checklist line calls him a heavyweight, so the division he actually ruled appears on none of his cards.
2025 Panini Combat Anthology, out November 5, added a fourth card at #73 and with it his first genuinely scarce parallels: a seventeen-step ladder from unnumbered Galactic and Silver down through Cracked Ice /25, Gold /10, Squared Circle /8 and Crimson Mask /5 to Black Fireworks and KO 1/1s. He is in the base set only, absent from the product's autograph subsets. Released five weeks before he submitted Renan Ferreira in Lyon, it is the last card issued of him as a challenger.
The inaugural PFL heavyweight title changed his standing in the checklist overnight. 2026 Panini Contenders PFL handed him the lead slot at base #1 across eleven appearances, including Crown Jewels #9 and Championship Contenders #4 — both champion-themed inserts he had not qualified for a year earlier — plus a 2006 Throwback, a Winning Ticket, a Supernatural and two Champion Series Stars lines. Watch the number: Championship Contenders #4 and Championship Moments Signatures #4 are different cards.
That same product finally produced a signature. Season Ticket Signatures #1 is the first certified Nemkov autograph that has ever existed — thirteen years into his career and six after his first world title — with a ladder through Blue Fireworks /99, Main Card /75, Co-Main /49, Cracked Ice /25, Main Event and Gold /10 to a Championship Ticket 1/1. Beside it sit his only two serial-numbered signed cards, Championship Moments Signatures #4 and PFL Ink #54, both held to 49 copies; the former is the first time a Nemkov title win has been put on cardboard with his name on it.
2025 Panini Contenders PFL #16 — Vadim Nemkov.
2025 Panini Contenders PFL Supernatural #8 — Vadim Nemkov.
2025 Panini Contenders PFL Superstar Die-Cuts #8 — Vadim Nemkov.
2025 Panini Combat Anthology #73 — Vadim Nemkov.
2026 Panini Contenders PFL #1 — Vadim Nemkov.
2026 Panini Contenders PFL Season Ticket Signatures #1 — Vadim Nemkov.
2026 Panini Contenders PFL Championship Moments Signatures #4 — Vadim Nemkov.
2026 Panini Contenders PFL — PFL Ink #54 — Vadim Nemkov.
2026 Panini Contenders PFL Crown Jewels #9 — Vadim Nemkov.
2026 Panini Contenders PFL Championship Contenders #4 — Vadim Nemkov.