Greetings, writes Marcio (Gamach) Santos, who found a new life in Russia and fell in love with you! I haven’t been interviewed for a long time and I was so keen to tell about my adventures in your incredible country that I decided to write you a long letter.
Right now I have a heavy weight race and little strength. I felt like I had been writing this for ages.
On January 20 in Moscow, I fight in the main event of the evening against Dmitry Aryshev at the AMC Fight Nights tournament. He’s a decent young fighter, but his mistake is that he decided to use me as a springboard for the title fight in Fight Nights. I feel like he underestimates me, and I’m going to have to upset him.
This is my tenth fight in Russia and the eighth in the past two years. Six of them became the main fights of the evening. Wow! I’m writing this, and I still can’t believe it, because three years ago I ended my career and had no hope or purpose.
I came to Russia for the first time in 2016 in Grozny. Then he was not fat, as he is now, and fought in the welterweight category against Beslan Ushukov – lost by decision. In 2018 he came to Yekaterinburg, where he lost earlier than expected to Sergey Martynov. After two defeats, I never imagined having new chances in Russia.
I didn’t have to dream of fighting in the USA either, in 2013 I missed the opportunity to do so when I was at the top of my physical form, young and disciplined. He participated in the second season of The Ultimate Fighter (a reality TV show under the brand UFC. – “”) in the team of Fabricio Werdum. I managed to win the first fight, but in the second fight Mario Yamasaki stopped my fight with Santiago Ponzinibbio too soon. The reality show took place in Brazil, and I’m a big football fan and I was ready to die in a cage, because it was particularly insulting for me to fly away from the Argentinian. I think you will understand. Santiago ended up winning in sensational fashion this season, beating all the Brazilians. He was like Messi winning the America’s Cup in the Maracanã.
Let’s go back to 2018. After a series of failures, I fell into depression, I lost motivation, discipline and started on a path of self-destruction. In 2019 he had two more indescribable fights in Brazil and decided that I was ending my career. In 2020 the pandemic started and I grew stronger in the opinion that my career was over.
Having lost dreams and goals, I lost myself. Terrible events have taken place in my life: I got carried away with drugs and alcohol, I got into trouble, street fights, and many times I could die without glory or find myself behind the bars for a long time. My family tolerated me and forgave me, but I understood that even they no longer believed in me. It finished me, I desperately needed to be believed, but believing in a lost person is always difficult.
Everything changed with one call in January 2021. Suddenly a Russian manager came to me (Dark Horse founder Imam Magomedov. – “”), said they needed a rival with a name for young prospect David Barkhudaryan. He replied that he had retired, but this manager was persistent. The interest was added by the fact that we were to play with the Brazilian national team wall to wall and that our team would include the legendary Zuluzinho (a Brazilian fighter, a former rival of Fedor Emelianenko, who went to fight with Fedor weighing about 160 kg – “”).
This idea became a ray of light. He smiled and thought that even if the old Zulu is ready to organize another overseas tour for himself, then why am I refusing, who is ten years younger than him? After all, I lived in poverty and needed money. He accepted and after a year and a half he returned to the hall. I was surprised at how weak I had become and realized that David would finish me off and a third defeat in Russia would end my prospects. There was nothing to lose. The fight went as planned – I lost in the first round. After the tournament, I cried in my room, I realized that the ray of light was gone, and I was alone again with the darkness in my soul. He was afraid to return home and upset his family again.
At that time, the same manager knocked on my door. I won’t reveal the details of our conversation, but this stranger managed to light a fire in me, to give me motivation. I cried even harder, because for a long time no one believed in me, and he offered to fly to the training camp in Dagestan, promised to take care of everything. He covered all the expenses, and I couldn’t refuse such an offer.
He told me to wipe away my tears, smile and get ready for the hardest job of my life. After all, Dagestan is a tough place, where tough fighters are at every step. If they had told me then that by the end of 2021 I would be a star, buy myself a new home and share a cage along the way with legends like Shlemenko and Emelianenko, I would never have. believed. How amazing and wonderful life is! Being in emptiness and darkness, when we lose ourselves, we often forget it. I wish each of you never to lose your way and never stop believing in the best!
We went to Dagestan, where I felt like a rag in every hallway, everywhere we went. After four weeks of intensive training, the manager offered me a fight with Artur Huseynov on short notice. He had nothing left to lose, and accepted this fight with joy (April 6, 2021 at the Eagle FC 35 tournament in Moscow. – “”). They said the bookies had a coefficient of about 8 for my success, but I managed to get a sensational victory. Some even called him the sensation of the year, and I believed in myself again.
Since then, my career has taken an incredible turn. Then there were only the main fights of the evening! May 2021 and the fight with legend Alexander Shlemenko. August and a furious revenge with Artur Huseynov. In November, for the first time, I came out on the Russian song “Districts-Quarters” and defeated Alexander Emelianenko. February 2022 and the sea of my blood in a duel with Misha Allahverdyan. After the fight, he was already singing “Districts-Quarters”, it was funny.
May 2022 and a triumphant return to Vladivostok, where I defeated local hero Gennady Kovalev. Five main fights of the evening in one year! Fancy! They started calling me the King of . It looks like I set the record for the number of mainline fights, and it only took a year. In two years from self-destruction and oblivion to historical events!
It was an unforgettable adventure that gave me a lot of joy and impressions. The most important thing is that I was finally able to make my family, my wife and my children happy. Finally, they were proud of me, dreamed of it since childhood!
I would like to end this letter with a long list of thanks: first of all, thank you to this country and its people! I managed to visit Grozny, Yekaterinburg, Sochi, Moscow, Khasavyurt, Makhachkala, Nizhny Novgorod, Syktyvkar, Vladivostok. Russia is so big and so different, but everywhere I met a lot of kind people. I want to kiss you all! Thank you Dagestan! Clubs “Dugfighter”, “Highlander”, “Agat”, “Athletics”, “Fighting Eagles”, where they accepted me as their own and made me that same Gamach (translated from Avar – stone. – ” “)! In this place, I have so many people to whom I am grateful that it is difficult to list them all. Makhachkala BOMB!
Thanks to my Dark Horse team! We have become a real dark horse in this business. You were for me managers, trainers, educators, psychologists, pharmacologists, nutritionists, lawyers, cooks … I agree with Shlemenko, who said in an interview that I should erect a monument. You believed in me more than in my family and I will never forget it! Thanks to AMC Fight Nights, Kamil Gadzhiev, Amir Muradov! You helped my dreams come true!
Thanks to EFC League, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Shamil Zavurov. Without two fights with Artur Huseynov, my takeoff would not have taken place. Thanks to my friend Vova and, in his person, the city of Sochi, which has become like mine! There, we were always warmly welcomed, fed on the barbecue and introduced to the Russian bath! They were real KAIFUSHI!
And to conclude, I thank the inhabitants of Vladivostok and Syktyvkar! I felt the love of the public in these cities, as well as the warm attitude of the people who organized the tournaments! I will definitely come back to see you!
Well, it’s time to wrap it up. See you on January 20 in Moscow! It’s going to be hot, don’t hesitate!
Source : MatchTV

I am Ashley Ortiz and I am a professional journalist working for Athletistic. My specialty is in sports journalism, particularly boxing. I have written articles for some of the most renowned publications on the subject, and my work has been featured across both print and digital media platforms.