“My father worked in the mine for 30 years. He’s explosive.” The story of Roman Kopylov, who eliminated four opponents in 377 days

Kopylov’s UFC career began very sadly: having entered the league with a Fight Nights belt and an 8-0 record, Roman lost his first two fights, rarely fought, and all attempts to introducing him to the Russian public ended with interviews with the dominant. phrases “we’ll see” and “It’s too early to talk about it.”

Since September last year, Kopylov has won four fights by knockout. Most likely, tomorrow he will enter the top 15 middleweights of the UFC and … will again say: “I don’t care who I fight.” Kopylov grew up in Kuzbass, fought in hand-to-hand combat tournaments, and to improve his business in the UFC, he went to Dagestan to Rasul Magomedaliev (in his gymnasium Vladimir Mineev prepared for the fights with Ismailov).

How Kopylov’s mother took a fighter to children’s tournaments

At UFC Fight Night 277, southpaw Kopylov pinned Josh Fremd. Roman’s left found his opponent’s liver, and the fight was stopped 16 seconds before the end of the second round. Now let’s find out:

— We usually ended the interview with this, let’s say straight away: what is the force?

— Where I train.

— Yes, you said: “Makhachkala is power,” but there is another secret.

– Oh, in loops! Exactly. But they got a little smaller, I made them shorter, that’s why everything lasted so long.

— Traditionally, your trainer cannot get a visa to the United States, and this time he was in Elista for the Vladimir Mineev fight. How often did you talk to him?

– Yes, he literally called me before leaving and gave me final instructions. He told me to stick to the plan. That I should “finish” him in the second or third round.

– What word does he use: “turn off”, “drop”, “crash”, “clean”…

– Take off!

— During a fight, could you hit a person directly in the liver?

– I love this shot, yes. I’m trying to refine it. Well, here the opponent showed with all his appearance that this was enough. I don’t really like finishing people off in a cruel way, and the judge came and showed that it was all over.

-Are you affecting the liver or solar plexus?

– In the liver. It wasn’t a completely straight shot, it came a little sideways.

— Now Armen Petrosyan and Vladimir Mineev trained with you. Who have you fought the most with?

— We worked quite a bit with Vladimir, a few rounds. He prepared more for three-minute segments. We always train with Armen, there are a lot of guys there that you probably don’t know, but they are very strong: Anwar, Abdullah, Muhammad, Afandi. Do these names mean anything to you?

– That it is better not to fight with them.

“I hope they hear about it soon too.” There are a lot of talented guys there.

— Can you drop people in a fight with body shots?

– Our coach says that we can work the body with all our strength, but on the head, it is better to take care of each other. There are spills to the body.

— You don’t really follow MMA news. Tomorrow, after the UFC rankings update, will you be looking to see if you have entered the top 15?

– Most likely, they will tell me about it before I see it myself.

— How many names among the top 15 can you name?

— Not at all, probably. I’m ashamed, but I’m not. All fighters are worth it, but I don’t watch tournaments every Sunday. Islam, Khabib, Fedor, Petya Yan – I will wake up and cheer for their fights. And others – I may not know them.

– Do you know the champion?

-Strickland, yes. I also heard Adesanya.

— Did you see their fight?

– Only in sections.

– How do you like Strickland?

– Normal, assertive, walks, chops. When he attacks, you can grab him, meet him, hit him.

-Can a blow like this really hit him?

– Well, you can’t inflate the liver, if you hit it clearly and accurately, then there will be problems. It seems to me that I barely touched my stomach, there was no very strong blow. You don’t need much for your liver.

– They say Strickland can be hit with spinners, and you know how to hit them.

– Maybe yes. But you need to be careful about this in combat, the decks in general are quite dangerous unexpected blows.

– Do you think you can beat him?

– Certainly. He and I have two arms and two legs. I train at one of the best gyms in the world. You just have to “delete” it, that’s all.

— You started in the UFC with two defeats, now you have four first victories. How do you answer the question for yourself: what has changed?

— The training location, the sparring partners and the coach present at each training session monitor… Our wrestling coach, Ahmad, is present at each training session. Umar, the forwards coach, not only tries to beat me for five minutes, but we analyze the opponent and move; and Rasul, who corrects everything and finds the right words. The psychological component is also important. Rasul, for example, can say something, somewhere to distract me, somewhere, on the contrary, to say something necessary, motivating. I am very happy that we have established a relationship.

— The majority of people in your gym are Muslim fighters, what do you do when your teammates go to pray?

—There is a period there, usually in winter, when prayer falls right during training. And just in the middle of training it starts, I can stay alone and that’s it. It takes a little time, nothing special. In my opinion, now, as winter approaches, it will happen again, I am already used to it.

— Can you wear shorts in Dagestan?

– Actually yes. But I’m wearing pants. It’s not welcome there, but I’m a guest, it’s easy for me to go out in pants.

— In this fight, it turned out that first you came to replace an injured fighter, then your opponent left the fight and a replacement was found for him. You both ended up fighting in a tournament where you weren’t supposed to fight in the first place.

— When my opponent was injured, Zhenya Shevchenko immediately told me that I would fight Josh Fremd. I was originally supposed to fight with this fighter on June 17th, he refused, claiming it was an injury, but then he fought himself on August 12th. And then my fight was postponed until July. And that’s how in the end we met.

— You fought four battles in a year and 12 days; 50 days have passed between the last two. Isn’t this too common?

“If there are no injuries or damage, then you can fight like this.” Even if we look at my amateur career, from the age of 18 I had district, Russian and world championships, then troop competitions. Two starts per month and four fights each. On the contrary, it is more difficult for me to get involved after a long rest.

— Even those who support you think your stamina is weakening a little. Is this so?

– I wouldn’t say that. Maybe I’m just stagnating, but even my coach pays attention to it and says: “Roma, don’t stagnate, move.” And I can just stand up and miss the shots, but I will say this: they don’t hurt me, I’m still doing my job. We are people, we are all tired, who tells me that – well, they tried to make three by five themselves? If they’re not tired, let them tell me what to do.

— It is logical that the viewer compares you not to himself, but to other fighters.

– I don’t think I get tired more than the others, yes.

— What kind of physics training do you have?

— It seems to me that wrestling gives the best endurance. If you have improved your physique a little in wrestling, then in the stands there is no problem. Wrestling is the best physics. And so – press, parallel bars, horizontal bar, push-ups, plank. Always after training.

— In the last two months, have you ever approached a barbell, a rower or a bike?

– No. When I have a lot of time to prepare for a fight, I still go to the gym and do something there, but here I have little time, I did more wrestling, paws and sparring.

– Do you remember the last time you leaned on a bench?

– My arms are long, it’s uncomfortable for me. But I think I can handle a hundred kilos. To be honest, I don’t remember the last time I was able to bench press. It seems like I haven’t done this in over a year. Sometimes I’ll do something with weights, but it’s very gentle on the other muscle groups.

— Do you have a new contract now?

— This is the second fight under the new contract.

— In 2023, you want to fight again?

— December would be ideal.

— We can assume that each next fight is also an opportunity to earn 2-3 million rubles after taxes. Keep that in mind when trying to get back into the octagon as quickly as possible?

“If I say it doesn’t matter to me, it won’t be true.” Finances are also important, we live on them, so it’s important.

— Is there anything specific you will purchase with this fee?

– No, I only think about the family, my parents. I have a few things to do at home, some investments, but no particular expenses.

— Some sort of family business?

– No, no, my father worked in the open pit mine for 30 years, my mother is a housewife, they are retired. Dad has three orders, he’s a Knight of the Minor’s Glory. It’s a professional blaster, we have an observation deck there, everyone can come and see.

— What is the most striking impression of his work?

— We had a video camera. Old, big. And one day he was filming explosions at work, and we watched it happen on tape at home. It’s impressive, it’s like they’re shooting at the ground with a machine gun, and there’s such a wave coming.

– I didn’t take you with me?

– No, there are safety precautions.

— Does your father watch the fights?

– Of course, the first thing I do is call home and talk.

Live broadcasts of mixed martial arts tournaments can be seen on and Match! Fighter”, as well as on the sites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.