Russian Featherweight Movsar Evloyev hailed the popularity of his potential opponent Bryce Mitchell in the USA.
Evloev, who has 16 wins in 16 fights in MMA, and Mitchell (15 wins, 2 losses) were supposed to fight at UFC 288, which will be held on May 6 in Newark (USA), but the American fighter abandoned the tournament in less than a week before the fight. The fight with Evloev was accepted by UFC rookie Brazilian Diego Lopez (21–5).
“I learned about the substitute the day before yesterday when I was flying here. I just connected to the Wi-Fi, and the manager wrote to me that my opponent was injured and they offered me another substitute Of course, it’s a pity that the best opponent, with whom it would be an interesting fight in terms of the media, with whom it would be possible to finally close the case, flew away. But injuries come, last year I I hurt myself, I went through a long rehabilitation. It’s part of the game. I accepted it normally, and they told me that the duel with Mitchell could be arranged in late July or August. It would be good to fight once in a while and fight in the summer.
It’s not important to me to fight Mitchell, but he’s very popular in America, he’s very popular with the middle class, he’s one of the so-called rednecks, country boys, and he’s got a big base of fans behind him. Defeating such an opponent can give you good points in terms of promotion.
The main thing is that this fight is saved, because we prepared, drove the weight and didn’t want to come away with nothing.
Substituting the opponent had no effect. I also discovered the fight with Bryce Mitchell a little over two weeks ago, I was fasting, it was the month of Ramadan. When there was a week of fasting left, they called me and said you could fight on short notice. I didn’t want to miss such a chance, because it wasn’t clear when next time it would be possible to fight. For two weeks we were preparing for a left-hander, now the opponent is a right-hander, and we started to switch to a right-hander, that’s the only adjustment. He also has a large arm span, 11 cm longer, but, as they say, we will find the keys. We have a few days left to adjust the weight, intensive training is already behind us, Evloev told .
For the new opponent of the Russian, this fight will be the first of the UFC promotion. Retired Bryce Mitchell was ranked 11th in the featherweight division.
Live broadcasts of mixed martial arts tournaments can be viewed on the channel and thematic channels of the holding, as well as on the matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru websites. The UFC 288 tournament, where the main event will be the meeting of Americans Aljamain Sterling and Henry Cejudo, watch on May 7 from 00:55 Moscow time on “Match! Fighter”.
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.
