Dmitry Bikrev fought in the main event of the AMC Fight Nights tournament against Alexei Makhno, defending the champion belt in the category up to 77 kg. The judge stopped the process in the fifth round: Bikrev threw a long series of punches, Makhno almost didn’t respond, there was too much blood…
Bikrev and Makhno trained a lot in the same gymnasiums, for 30 years they got to know each other a lot in Moscow, and their fight, it seems, should not have happened. But the two former friends successfully turned into rivals: Alexei was hurt that Bikrev’s team did not consider him the toughest opponent. But Makhno prepared and got really tough. Dmitry Bikrev didn’t want to miss more than a year as league champion, and his team started this fight. Speaking after the fight, Dmitry was still unaware that ten minutes ago in the locker room his opponent said: “I wouldn’t want to run into him either in the gym or in town.”
It is easy to understand Makhno: it is impossible to calm down quickly after these five rounds.
– Does anything hurt you 20 minutes after the fight?
I have to look tomorrow, but so far so good. Only covered in blood. And the whiskey hurts, you see, it happened.
– After the fight, you said you fought with a hand injury – what happened?
– Yes, something happened, either overworked or for some other reason, but on Monday I could not unfold it. And so far it has remained: I only started hitting a direct hit in combat, otherwise I couldn’t keep it against the body normally and missed a hit to the liver. And that shot pissed me off.
– Alexei has knockouts with liver kicks. Did he hit you well?
– Understood, yes. He caught his breath, unpleasantly, but nothing like that.
“A lot of people thought it would be an easy fight for you. Makhno performed better than expected?
– Yes yes. Well, he was ready, he is physically very strong. As soon as he got the hang of it, and I realized he was getting ready, he was fit… on the “farm”, he was strong. We had a plan – don’t force, don’t steal, and I waited. The only thing is that I only managed to hit when I was cutting, but it had to work easier. On the first lap everything worked for me, but then I messed it up and started messing around.
– The fight ended when you defeated Alexei in a standing position and he almost didn’t respond. Is there discomfort at such a moment, pity or sympathy?
– Honestly, I didn’t want to beat Lyokha already there, her face was already covered in blood, I thought maybe the judge would intervene. My eyes were so flooded with blood that I thought I had a cut, because I couldn’t see normally. Bad story.
– Someone said you can end your career today.
– No, we still have to fight.
– Kamil Gadzhiev has lined up a line of contenders for your belt: Marif Piraev, Goiti Dazaev, Takhir Abdullayev.
“We did all this preparation with Takhir, we have been communicating with him for a long time, we have a good relationship. With Marif too. If you take Makhno, Marif and Takhir, we all trained at the same club, but we have close relations with Marif and Takhir, and with Lekha we did not have a great friendship, so I accepted.When I knew that he was ready to fight me, I did not refuse.
– Alexei was unhappy that your managers believed that the fight with Makhno was easy money for you.
“There were simply no other options. I would like to fight Shlemenko and Yasubi Enomoto, but [в организации] reject these options. They seem to be expensive and unwilling. I had been preparing for six months, and I had to either postpone until the fall or fight. Alexei was the only reasonable option.
– Will you try to talk to him in the next few days after the fight?
– Yes, I have no negativity to somehow communicate with him separately. We called each other, I said to him: “Lech, let’s act like professionals. Let’s go out and fight. Let’s shake hands before and after…”. He tries to swing something, as if I’m saying something. I only know one story: they didn’t communicate to me, and the person said that I was ready to fight (probably the manager of Bikreva – ), but I didn’t turn around. Nothing to complain about, he did well, he wanted to win, he went ahead. Which was here, stay here, and so we have a lot of friends, we tour in the same field, we communicate, so I see no reason to develop something, let it fight more.
– You called Alexander Shlemenko several times. If you were offered to fight Shlemenko or top contender Goiti Dazaev, what would you choose?
– Shlemenko, of course. All of Russia knows him, maybe she doesn’t like him, but yes.
– Would you go up in the category up to 84 kg to fight it?
Yes, I could with him.
– And in Omsk to fight?
– No problem.
When do you want to have your next fight?
– Autumn. Maybe even the end of the year.
– You were supposed to fight Makhno on June 24, but on that day the tournament was canceled. I heard that day was a little more serious for you than for all Fight Nights fighters (according to , Bikrev is a law enforcement employee).
– It was difficult for me because of my work. I can’t comment but yes.
– Wasn’t it difficult because of the cancellation of the event?
– Well, yes, we had a mess there, I must have gotten nervous, I spent two days at work.
“Is it true that you took part in Conor McGregor’s visit to Moscow in 2018?”
– Yes. My manager called me, asked if we could bring him (Bikreva’s manager worked for a while with McGregor’s friend Artem Lobov – “”), and I have friends in the ‘administration [президента]. They just asked me, “Are you really in touch with him?” “. I said yes. We took an official letter and officially invited him.
– There is a popular video on the Internet where Conor gives Vladimir Putin whiskey, puts his hand on his shoulder, and the video is called something like “Putin’s guards make a mistake”, allegedly Conor approached too close, made contact. Did the guards make a mistake?
– Not really. It’s whatever, calm down. In fact, Conor is a big fan of Vladimir Vladimirovich. And he speaks very well of Russia. I spoke to him – he’s a different person. The picture is completely different. He smiles, jokes, it’s comfortable to be in the same company as him.
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.
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.
