“I corresponded with Ronda Rousey.” Ivan Emelianenko’s rival is a very atypical judoka, and we spoke to him

Fedor and Alexander Emelianenko’s younger brother, Ivan, started judo at the age of six, and it coincided in such a fun way that he would fight his first MMA fight against grassroots judoist Alexei Ledenev. Ivan Emelianenko’s MMA debut was expected about 10-15 years ago, but it will only happen now – in 2023, when Ivan turns 34. Emelianenko Jr. (most) is approaching his MMA debut as a master of hand-to-hand combat and combat sambo sports.

Emelianenko’s 38-year-old opponent was much closer to great success in amateur sport and was selected for the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Alexey Ledenev is touted as a world-class master of sports in judo without experience in professional MMA. In exhibition fights, Ledenev has three wins and one loss in his debut against a man under the alias “Big Daddy”. Big Daddy demolished Ledenev with blows, and the referee decided not to check how bad the judoka was and immediately stopped the fight.

Now that Ivan Emelianenko and Alexei Ledenev will meet under MMA rules, promoter Vladimir Khryunov has already confirmed that the fight will be official, and you better not even wonder what will happen to it. Internet search engines tell incredible stories about Ledenev related to business and participation in Dancing with the Stars projects (he won in tandem with Anastasia Stotskaya), and people who are in wrestling circles say that Alexei was really a very talented judoka, but for some reason he didn’t shoot at olympic level, then he got into social life, business and fasting experiences.

— To begin with, I would like to clarify where and how did you complete the master’s degree in world-class sports? Wikipedia writes that you are the champion of Russia in 2007.

– First, I would say that Wikipedia doesn’t even have a fraction of my results, it’s a mystery to me who fills it. Second, I can tell you that I won. I became the champion of Russia at all ages and in different versions. He won the Russian Cups in 2007 and 2009. In 2004 I became vice-champion of Europe, and I had a situation where I was chased in the same way as recently Inal Tasoev with Teddy Riner. I made a throw, and I just didn’t count. Then in 2005, I won bronze at the European Championships. From 2005 to 2007, I won the World Cups. In the team at the European Championships, he won bronze and silver. And I also won the Olympics among the police and firefighters. I have completed an international sports master’s degree about six times. In 2008, he was selected for Beijing, but failed to achieve the required rating.

– Have you communicated with other judokas who have switched to MMA?

– I corresponded and we spoke with Yoshihiro Akiyama, Asian judo champion (14-7 in MMA; 2-4 in UFC – Approx. “”), and when I sent him my releases for fights in kimonos, we laughed about it, he said he had done the same thing. I know Lavrik well (Denis Lavrentiev, the second of Peter Yan – About “”), we lived with him in Podolsk at training camp.

– Was it difficult to adapt the fight from judo to grappling, which is in MMA?

– In my opinion, this grappling, this jiu-jitsu – let the wrestlers not be offended – is a truncated judo. As Artem Tarasov says, castrated judo. He just needs to integrate wrestling in a kimono into wrestling without a kimono. For me, the main difficulty was that you have to transition from one technique to another when trying to beat you. In wrestling, no one beats you, it all depends on your speed and maneuvers. You go over and thicken the fight, or conversely, lengthen it and then transfer it to the ground. Here, both in the position and in the stalls, a shot can fly. That’s all the difficulty, and my wrestling skills are at the level of an international sports master.

– What do you do when you wrestle?

— I really like suffocators. In the past year I haven’t been able to implement a single one, but hopefully I’ll fix it again soon.

– It is said about wrestlers that some, purely psychological, cannot get used to the fact that they can now be beaten in the face. How quickly do you get used to it?

– I won’t say that I’m used to punches, I do my best not to miss them. And the best defense is an attack, so I try to attack like in wrestling.

How do you find Ronda Rousey’s career in MMA?

– And I didn’t just watch her fights, we corresponded with her live. I like it because many judokas in Dagestan, our mighty team, still base their wrestling and throwing on leg passes (before judo rules were changed – Approx “”), and Rousey, in as the Games bronze medalist, was able to pick up under two legs, under one leg and it looks cooler and more spectacular.

– What did you write about?

– I invited her to my show “Judo with the Stars”. And so, they whinnied, laughed, she said, “It’s cool that you’re doing this in Russia, but I’m still at home.” If I understand correctly, she now leads a more closed life.

– As a judoka, did you cross paths with Fedor or Alexander? Fedor certainly spoke.

I remember Fedor very well. Somewhere in 2000 he became the third in the Russian judo championship, and it was from that moment that I just entered the main reserve of the judo team, starting with the boys. And for me, he was a guy who went into combat, but who has a basis in judo. For us, it was cool. But I remember him already moving into battles.

– Do you know each other?

– I’m not sure he knows me or remembers anything, but we saw each other at some competitions.

– Did you know anything about Ivan?

– I can tell you that, of course, everyone has heard of Fedor, but I have always heard of Alexander and Ivan. I knew of the existence of both. And the plans where the three, I saw them ten years ago. I knew there was a third brother, but I just didn’t know what he was doing.

– When were you first told that you can fight with the third brother Emelianenko?

– Initially it was thought that I would fight Alexander, but then they decided to fight Zhenya Ershov, and Ivan was offered to me. I think this story started two or two and a half months ago.

– About Ivan, on the one hand, it is said that he is a master of hand-to-hand sports and is good at street fighting, but on the other hand, it is not known at all what shape he is in and how he trained. What do you expect from him?

– First of all, I think fighting in the streets, being a master of sport in hand to hand or combat sambo … I am already confused in which martial arts he is a master of sport and if he is a master of sports in general. But anyways I also fought on the street and didn’t even have a punching technique I just drove back and kicked a little bit so for me fighting on the street and entering the octagon are two different things. As for Ivan, I understand that he has some kind of classic military equipment and I will be ready for it. I think my main chance of winning is just to throw a showdown and a fight in which one of us will win or lose.

– You are MSMK in judo. What’s wrong with making a bell crank if Ivan is someone who “did it a long time ago”?

– It does not seem obvious to me, he also fought, he had knowledge of judo, sambo, he has wrestling skills. Here is Zhenya Ershov (blogger, rival of Alexander Emelianenko – Approx. “”), I made a catch under two legs, because he does not know how to defend himself at all. And here I don’t think it will be easy to fight. Maybe I can catch him when he’s tired, but I can’t go out and just cock him.

– Who installs the percussion equipment for you?

– A year ago I called my friend, Fight Nights fighter Ivan Kosov and told him that I wanted to do all this, he started doing MMA with me. He also attracted the master of world-class sports Sergey Moskotov, he was part of the national team for many years and deals with me only in shock. And Ivan is adapting my technique for MMA.

Live broadcasts of the Mixed Martial Arts tournaments can be seen on and Match! Fighter”, as well as on the sites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.