“Then Mineev won’t work anymore.” Ismailov – on the preparation for the fights of Shlemenko and Mineev

– Vladimir Mineev today announced the cancellation of the fight with Timur Nikulin. What’s your reaction ?

– Wow. Thus, Mineev will no longer work. He is currently in a difficult position. He thought that I would abruptly resolve the issue with Timur now, earn money, and there would be a vacuum to catch my breath. But it’s a long downtime for Mineev as a champion. A long downtime for a big event where you get paid a lot sometimes works against us.

There must be demand. If there is no demand for you, then you are asking a lot. I think he needs to move. He has no injury, he needs to be included. If I hadn’t had an injury, I would have fought three times already, including with Mineev.

Nikulin is like a warm up, like a fight – get out there, warm up, feel the ring. Unfortunately, this confrontation will not take place. For Mineev too, apparently, unfortunately. Most likely, he has already spent that money in his head.

– Vagab Vagabov, who you will support in the fight with Dmitry Kudryashov, said he has many situations on the street and everything works out well for him. You had known him for a long time, were you together in such situations?

– Not. Vagab is very cultured, polite. When a person is very tall, strong and dangerous, but at the same time polite … It’s hard to fight with such a person.

I didn’t see him fight in the street. I know, but I haven’t seen it. And he hasn’t seen mine. Maybe when we’re together, we don’t let each other fight, we try to work it out. He got angry, I can calm him down. It does not happen that something happens and I have already sat down: “Come on Vagab, let’s go!”

There must be a very good reason for some kind of physical strength to come to the streets.

– How long have you known Vagabov?

Take 12 years. I knew him before we met, and he knew me. As a promising athlete from Dagestan.

– Who will you call into battle to prepare for the fight against Alexander Shlemenko?

– Let’s see what Ankalaev has… Shara. Chara [Буллет] also works well with lefties.

– Ankalaev and Shara, in my opinion, are a little big for Shlemenko?

– I’ll fix the view there later, it’s not scary. The main thing is that left-handers work well.

– Almost all Russian leagues were interested in you. And Khabib didn’t offer to play in his promotion?

– Khabib has a good league, it is possible that there you will see my opposition. Seriously, this may have been discussed. It can happen. Who would you like to be with? Rashad Evans is there, there are other interesting characters, who else is at middleweight?

—Hector Lombard.

– That’s also interesting. Khabib has someone to make noise with on his turf.

– The last time you were asked about Alexander Emelianenko during the ACA tournament, then you said that you did not know what condition he was in. Now you’ve probably seen it. What are the expectations?

– He is now in a rehabilitation center, recovering. Let’s wait a bit and see how things develop. The beginning is good, there is good news, and then we will see how everything goes.

– Some fighters say they are not very interested in watching fights…

– Who said that?

– Heard by Alexander Volkov.

– Volkov himself is engaged, the person is not up to it. He is a professional fighter preparing for the UFC. He, of course, cannot look at anything. It’s clear.

– When was the last time you woke up to watch something in UFC live, if not your close friends?

– I don’t wake up to watch live broadcasts. Why should I stand and watch? If I’m awake at the time, then yes, but more often than not I turn the recording on. From what I woke up and watched – some Yoel Romero, John Jones fights.