Vadim Nemkov
Earliest Card

What exists, what does not, and which card the archive treats as the earliest.

Earliest card2025 Panini Contenders PFL #16
SubjectVadim Nemkov
Year2025
ManufacturerPanini
ConfidenceHigh confidence
Print runUnknown — not estimated

Verified×1High confidence×1View sources & research

Why this is the earliest card

Nemkov has no rookie card in any designated sense, and 2025 Panini Contenders PFL Season Ticket #16 is his earliest card rather than an RC. Panini used no rookie markers anywhere in Contenders PFL or Combat Anthology, and because he never fought in the UFC there is no Topps or Panini UFC issue that could serve as one. Nor is there an earlier print-to-order issue: Panini's Instant Bellator programme covered eight cards built around the 2024 Bellator Champions Series and he is not among them, and no independent database confirmation of any Nemkov Instant card has been found.

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.

Identifying it

Card #16 in the 100-card Season Ticket base checklist
Nameplate reads 'VADIM NEMKOV' with 'HEAVYWEIGHT' as the division, not Light Heavyweight
Contenders 'ticket stub' base design; the unnumbered Silver is the common parallel, so an unnumbered card with no colour flood is the plain base
Serial-numbered tiers are stamped on the front ticket panel

Parallels

Base

—

Unnumbered

Championship Ticket

1/1

High confidence

Season Ticket Black

1/1

High confidence

Main Event Ticket

/10

High confidence

Season Ticket Gold

/10

High confidence

+8 more

…

down to /299 · 1 unnumbered

Card milestones

Five separate questions, kept separate. How these are defined.

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.

Grading & population

Population figures will be taken directly from the grading companies and dated when they are. None are shown yet.

Sources & research Verified×1High confidence×1

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.

High confidence

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.