Russian MMA fighter Alexander Shlemenko after the SFC 8 tournament, he told that he still saw no reason to participate in bare-knuckle fighting.
On July 21, in Omsk, Shlemenko defeated Brazilian fighter Alex Oliveira by first-round choke. After the fight, the former Bellator middleweight champion noted that he would like revenge against Magomed Ismailov and Alexander Ilich, and explained why he wasn’t ready to go bare-knuckle.
– What would be the optimal date for a return, since right after the fight with Oliveira you said that it was unlikely that you would perform at the RCC in September?
– Now I will fly to Japan (Shlemenko will become the second of Andrey Koreshkov – “”), then on August 12 we will hold StormFest, this is also an event for which we must prepare. Last year I wanted to compete a lot, but this year showed me that I had made a mistake, that at a high level, frequent fights are not for you. I just didn’t have time to prepare. If I can prepare myself and there is an offer, I am ready to consider it. Nikolai Klimenko asked me if I was ready to fight in September. I said: the battle will pass – we will talk. Until we talk.
– The RCC League opened a promotion with punches, where they abandoned the traditional style of bare fists with conflict during conferences and constant confrontation after fights. Were you offered a bare-knuckle fight in Yekaterinburg?
– Nikolai Klimenko asked me if I wanted to fight with bare fists. I said I didn’t see the point of bare-handed performances yet. We have a very promising fist fighter in our school, Vyacheslav Meshcherkin, he is 5-0, he represents our school, our only fist fighter. He almost fought in MMA, there were few fights in kickboxing, you have to sit longer. He found a fist, realized it was easier and better for him. And why should I? Now I see there are a lot of guys in the punches who haven’t fully realized themselves in MMA. And I also see that there is a very big harm to health. If there is a serious showdown for big money then we can consider it but so far I am doing well in MMA and would like to continue,” Shlemenko told .
In mixed martial arts, Shlemenko had 80 fights (63 wins, 15 losses, 1 draw, 1 fight declared invalid).
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.
