“Alexander has found love…motivation.” Emelianenko will fight with a blogger weighing 82 kg – what is it

The last official fight in MMA, won by Alexander Emelianenko, was recorded in July 2018. Victor Pest met Emelianenko in almost the best form of his career, thanks to the efforts of the judge he could not keep his opponent down and was ultimately eliminated in the second round. Then Emelianenko fought to a draw with Tony Johnson, got a lot of cuts, and after that his results fell sharply. Here’s what happened next.

From now on, Emelianenko will fight with blogger Svyatoslav Kovalenko in the form of three rounds of three minutes each with a limit of minutes on the ground. Gloves – like in MMA.

Svyatoslav Kovalenko is known as a blogger who conducts interviews and trains with his heroes. Kovalenko manifested himself most clearly in several moments: in 2020 he came to settle the conflict with blogger Zelimkhan, was beaten by the crowd, but the cry »Where are you? Zelimkha-an! ” recorded 3.4 million views. Then Kovalenko had good outings with promoter Kamil Gadzhiev, punching hero Artur Akab and with Alexander Emelianenko himself. The future rivals clashed during Alexander’s training camp in the Caucasus.

Now they will fight seriously. The organizer of the fight is Vladimir Khryunov. In September, our dialogue with Vladimir about the Alexander fight was as follows:

“You wouldn’t give him fights?”

– Never. I respect him a lot, he has done a lot to popularize, he can no longer perform. When a person has no coordination, he is no longer a martial artist. Attempts to take Emelianenko to a fight… Excuse me, maybe I’m some kind of bad promoter, but for me every fighter is like a child… Alexander, he’s helpless, he doesn’t see the shot.

– What changed? – a question to Vladimir Khryunov three days before the Emelianenko vs. Kovalenko fight.

– Meet me. There is the motivation and our agreement. And this is just the first fight in a series of fights by Alexander Emelianenko.

What did you see at the meeting?

– The man found love, found motivation and all the collisions that happened to him … It seemed to him that the girl he married now fell in love with him. It happens that a man somehow behaves desperately because of this. We had a good conversation with him, and let this be an example for women to always give men the opportunity to return love.

– You are a person who subtly understands boxing. There is no feeling that Alexander has lost his reflexes, his speed, his ability to see the shot?

– I spent two training sessions with him and only after that I made such a decision. I think the height advantage will probably keep him at bay [соперника].

– Do you want to publicly invite Fedor to this fight?

I know he is getting ready now. Call – call, but invite … Here Sasha Povetkin invited, he will come. I basically have a dream to spend it [Федора] the battle. And right after he fights in Bellator, I would like to make him such an offer. Any type of martial arts he chooses.

A nuance to which little attention is paid, Kovalenko is one of the rare rivals of Emelianenko not to have professional fights. In the statistics on Sherdog, a 90-year-old fighter has one fight listed as amateur, the other was declared invalid: on June 24 of this year, Kovalenko lost by technical knockout under the rules of MMA against Sergey Bobryshev, but after the referee stopped a mass fight started and Bobryshev’s win was overturned.

– Explain how such a fight went in general? – a question to Kovalenko’s manager, Vitaly Tarasov.

Sasha is at the stage in her career where she needs to earn money. Hype, name – he already has it. I wanted to do this fight for Svyatoslav Kovalenko even before Artem Tarasov (until September 2021). After the fight, I started to work on this subject. I contacted the manager of Alexander, but at that time it seemed that he was offered a fight with Antonio Silva, then he spoke with Vladimir Khryunov.

Let’s be honest, Svyatoslav never trained as a professional fighter. I told him he needed to work harder, and now he’s been going to a workout every day for a while. Training partners were selected by his trainer Dmitry Bushnev, he attracted heavyweights, he himself tried to work with Svyatoslav. The guys from Strela came and helped with the preparations.

– Alexander Emelianenko’s fee is called 10 million rubles. I have every reason not to believe it. Do you believe?

I think that’s as close to the truth as possible.

And what about Sviatoslav?

– Svyatoslav will receive less. They have different scales.

– Alexander Emelianenko in 2019 simply crushed Mikhail Koklyaev, but after that he could only win the fight against Artem Tarasov. There is no feeling that now any strong young man engaged in martial arts can be dangerous for Alexander?

– It seems to me that a lot of people think that Datsik and 13 seconds are some kind of phenomenal moment. But it was Datsik, the drummer. And fight by the rules of boxing. Kovalenko doesn’t hit like that, he often misses. He launches collective farms, he does not put his hands on his head. He has grappling skills that he says work for him, but I see Alexander as the favorite. Although Alexander, it seems to me, is no longer holding up, as he did three years ago. Svyatoslav is not a heavyweight, he weighs 82 kg. We tried increasing his combat weight, but it didn’t work. He can “eat” a few kilograms, but this is not a lot of work. The combat weight will be about 82 kg. We have some developments, we have strengthened some of Svyat’s skills, we have focused on wrestling, on working near the net. Also – Alexander said there will be no elbows in combat. For us, it was an important moment, we were offered, but Alexandre said: “You don’t beat with your elbows neither while standing nor in the stalls.”