“I immediately realized he was a very strong man.” Kamil Gadzhiev – about Pavlovich’s debut and Makhachev’s interview

It is important not to confuse: for the moment Kamil Gadjiev is involved in the AMC Fight Nights league, where they fight under MMA rules, oversees FKR Pro (it’s kickboxing), and pays a lot of attention to its football team from the league’s media. And in 2014, participants of the main and co-main fights of one of the biggest UFC tournaments of 2023 fought at the Camila tournament. Jiri Prochazka was little known, but Sergei Pavlovich eliminated his opponent four minutes later. Pavlovich now fights much the same way in the UFC.

From the interview you will learn:

— We just watched Vlad Tuinov’s kickboxing fight. Do you feel like he’s a very big star, but in a very, very specialized sport?

– Volodya Mineev fought here (the SCO championship in Ramenskoye – note from ), won the semi-final, the fight turned out to be difficult, reached the final and retired in the final. He fought in the super heavyweight division and did not move up to lighter weight, but in the final the risk of injury is high and Volodya has a fight with Shtyrkov ahead of him. Here’s an example from another kickboxing superstar. For me, their performances here are like a chance for young people to be remembered. Earlier, Muhammad, a young man, fought with Tuinov, I remember him.

— How should Tuinov’s career develop? Does he have a chance of fighting in MMA?

— There should probably be some sort of MMA fight between him and a beater, but we have to decide who that might be. Because so far, it seems that his career is in the kickboxing and fist fighting niches. But few people know about Vlad in MMA. They seem to have heard, they seem to know the name, and that’s it. I would give him an MMA fight.

— Any ideas that could become a rival?

— Jabar Askerov (world champion in kickboxing, 110-38 as a professional. — Rating “”) once tried to compete in MMA, now he competes in kickboxing again, I would watch this fight. But there are guys, beaters, who don’t wrestle at all, but who do MMA. Need to think.

— When you come to an amateur kickboxing tournament, are you looking for someone for AMC Fight Nights?

— I’m taking a closer look at the FKR PRO (professional kickboxing league), I’m working there too. Today the guy won and I was just looking for an opponent for Nikita Shostak. I found an 86 kg champion, a guy from Tver, Alexander Malafeev.

– Pyotr Romankevich said that he wanted to fight with Vladimir Mineev and immediately clarified that he was ready to enter the 100 kg category for this fight. Don’t you think Romankevich should drive more if he wants to fight Mineev?

– Well, if Petya weighs 95 kg, we can talk. Because otherwise Petya wants too many benefits for himself. He’s a basic kickboxer, he’s a strong kickboxer. I don’t know how he managed to lose to Vanya Shtyrkov – and this is an argument in favor of Vanya in the fight with Mineev. If Petya isn’t willing to move up in weight, this fight probably won’t happen.

— But in general, Mineev against Romankevich is the best that can be done in kickboxing in the post-Soviet space?

– I think so. And there is also Murtazaev. I would watch his fight with Oliveira and think about the Mineev-Murtazaev fight.

— At the UFC 295 tournament in New York, Sergey Pavlovich and Jiri Prochazka will fight in two main fights for the heavyweight and light heavyweight titles. They both fought at your tournament in Moscow in December 2014. Do you remember how Pavlovich came to you? Judging by his stories, he was recommended by serious people from Rostov.

– It’s true. Seryoga Pavlovich had a close person who was friends with me. That’s how he ended up with us. His career was progressing, we were in contact, we were making fights for him, and when the prospect of going to the UFC arose in 2018, he went to the UFC.

— How was it recommended? He didn’t have any great achievements in amateur sports, did he? They simply said: “Seryoga knocks down guys in combat. »

— He was world champion in uniform. And we gave him his first fight. I immediately understood what he was: a very strong man. And then it went from there. Then he won against Sultan Murtazaliev, against Akhmedsheikh Gelegayev…

— Vitaly Minakov became the Bellator champion before your eyes. What advice would you give Pavlovich on becoming a UFC champion?

— Seryoga must be as concentrated as possible and not let Aspinall breathe. Hit constantly. Create a threat. Aspinall was very good, very calm in the fight with Volkov. He’s a guy who’s good at tactics. Well, technically too. If he imposes his fighting style on Seryoga, then we won’t have to observe Aspinall’s domination on the ground over Pavlovich. In 2017, Seryoga struggled poorly on the field. Six years have passed, if Seryoga has improved on the ground, then he will be able to fight both Jones and Aspinall. If he hasn’t improved on the field, then his only chance is to bombard him with his shots, just to prevent Tom from getting close. But for that you don’t just need to hit well, for that you need to be functionally ready and focused. Constantly hit.

— Which future UFC stars who fought at Fight Nights do you remember most?

—Joanna Jedrzejczyk. She fought with Yulia Berezikova, a difficult fight, she won a little with an advantage, they gave her victory, which surprised her. And two years later, we saw each other in the halls of the UFC, and she jumped at me: “Boss, great.” I remember that she had the phrase: “It’s because of you” (it’s because of you. – Note “”). That is, she remained grateful that we didn’t start a fight – when, more or less, it’s an even fight, we give it to ours and the Pole goes home. She wins and she is grateful.

And Prochazka was and was. Once he lost to Abdul-Kerim Edilov and once he danced opposite Misha Mokhnatkin. Yes, he is such a champion, I don’t treat him like a champion.

— Don’t you think that Islam Makhachev, to be a superstar on the level of Khabib, lacks a little arrogance? It’s not great when a fighter says, “I don’t know what to do or who to beat to become number one in the pound-for-pound rankings.” » It would be better to say: “In 2024, I will beat Colby Covington and Leon Edwards and I will still be number one.” »

– Yes, it would be more interesting if Islam spoke like this. Well, it’s human nature, he doesn’t want to talk like that. He says, “If the UFC says fight Volkanovski a third time, let’s fight a third time. » Even if I don’t see the point of this fight. And no one sees it. And I would have heard from Islam: “Why do I need a third fight with Volkanovski? Give me Edwards. While Islam isn’t quite on the same page with fans who want hype. Khabib was more interesting in this regard. It’s time to improve.

— Did you shake hands and kiss Vasily Utkin after a football match with his team? Did you imagine this moment before the match?

– Yes, because a few days before, Vasya said somewhere in an interview that it was time for us to bury the hatchet, and I thought that one of us would congratulate someone. There was no point in doing this before the match, it would turn out that we wished each other good luck before the match. And afterwards, one of us had to congratulate the other. And now I see that Vasya is not in the best shape and I wanted the negativity between us to disappear. And he left. I sincerely congratulated him on this victory, and he congratulated me on the fact that we ended up where we ended up. In general, we even sincerely communicated afterwards.

— Between this handshake and the famous “non-handshake”, did you have any communication?

“We passed each other twice and we didn’t have a conversation there.” So… Now the hatchet is buried.

— Is there one of his texts, one of his columns that you remember?

— I don’t remember now, but I like his work. It’s always between football and scandal, but he’s a specialist and he definitely does it in such a way that the spectator doesn’t remain indifferent. Isn’t that what we look for in a sports journalist?

— Is it difficult to reconcile yourself in the role of a loser?

– No. I looked at this stadium in Volgograd, the people who came, there were many of them. And I realized that it was a success for my team. Winning would be cool. But they lost. We lost on penalties, in a dramatic match. There was no feeling of heaviness in my soul. I went into the locker room, the guys were tough, I understand them, they worked hard for 90 minutes, they lost, they weren’t any worse, but that’s what happened. I also found something to say to them.

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.