Fedor’s student knocked out in 43 seconds, Brandao called Mirzaev, and Shlemenko talked about Abdulmanap

For some reason, in the main battle of the Ural FC tournament, 33-year-old Kirill Sidelnikov (13 wins, 7 losses in MMA) and 42-year-old Fabio Maldonado (28-16) fought, who since 2017 has not defeated fighters with a positive record in battles. At the same time, Maldonado regularly managed to find very strong fists for his head: in boxing, Maldonado lost to Michael Hunter and Carlos Takam, in MMA – to Sergey Kharitonov and Jiri Prochazka. Today Fabio entered the cage in Perm and already in the eighth second met Sidelnikov’s fist with his temple.

“I’m going to start exactly in a standing position, I want to put on a show for the audience,” Kirill said before the fight. And he didn’t cheat. With a deft move, SAMBO World Champion Kirill pulled his legs out from under Fabio in the 13th second of the fight. After that, the fight lasted exactly 30 seconds.

– There is no feeling that Kirill Sidelnikov is one of the least open heavyweights in Russia? – a question to Kamil Gadzhiev.

“I always thought so. He believed that Cyril was a person who did not open up. He punches, kicks, fights, he can do everything. But there is such a career when everything seems power, but something does not work. As it happens and vice versa, people with little training become stars. But he is a heavyweight, he has time.

– And with whom in Russia would you see him fighting?

– I would have watched his fight even with Yusup Shuaev (Kamila AMC Fight Nights league champion. – “”). It is clear that Yusup will now have a rematch with Grisha Ponomarev. But in principle … It seems to me that Kirill is a threat to any heavyweight. The only question is how fit Cyril is, how motivated he is.

– How do you find today’s fight of such Sidelnikov against such Maldonado?

– In general, I try to talk about my colleagues well or not at all. I think, great friends, who made this tournament, it’s still the beginning of the organization. But the main fight deserves no criticism, and everyone understands that. You can’t bet Fabio Maldonado on the main fights in professional MMA in its current form.

Kamil was in the spotlight from the co-main event: Conor McGregor’s former rival, Brazilian Diego Brando, brutally beat Oleg Lichkovakha, jumped on the cage and began to thank Kamil Gadzhiev intensely. Brandão credits Kamil with restarting his career and giving him the opportunity to perform in Russia. Now Diego Brandão must fight with Rasul Mirzaev, the fighters staged a duel of views directly in the cage.

What Shlemenko said

Brandão was also in the spotlight at the post-fight press conference. Throughout the event, the Brazilian attempted to remove the tapes from his hands. Brandão bit the bandages, tore them with his hands. He asked Priscilla Pitbull, who was sitting next to him, to help him. They threw scissors at him, but the scissors didn’t cut. They gave me a knife – the knife helped a little. When it was all over, Brandão approached Alexander Shlemenko and expressed his respect for his fights in Manaus in the early 2000s. Shlemenko himself spoke happily about Khabib’s inclusion in the Hall of Fame and reluctantly about the fight for the UFC title.

– Today Khabib Nurmagomedov was inducted into the Hall of Fame, and during the 24-minute speech he talked about his father. And how do you explain why so many athlete-dads train their kids, but only Abdulmanap did?

— The tandem worked. The experience that Abdulmanap had, he successfully passed on to his son. A simple example: Andrey Koreshkov has almost the same titles as me, but he already has fewer defeats. He doesn’t make the same mistakes as me. And we will lead our young boys even more qualitatively. Abdulmanap had an advantage – he not only had huge baggage as an athlete, but also as a person. Listen to his interviews… I listened to them a lot, and what I learned from him – I didn’t notice a hint of envy of others from him. It seems to me that Abdulmanap was not an arrogant, selfish person with poorly developed self-esteem. And he was really good with other people. And he also had a level of self-criticism: he could argue and agree if you convinced him. It seems to me that if he understood that he was wrong about something, he could calmly admit it.

– He always spoke well “for me”, although many do not notice you on purpose, they do not refer specifically to you. And he was more clairvoyant, and he taught his son to do the same. Unfortunately, among our fighters there is such a thing that they catch a star and stop noticing others, but I didn’t notice it either with Khabib or Abdulmanap. I think it was Abdulmanap who did not allow such a thing to develop in Khabib and helped keep him human. It’s hard.

– In the UFC, a title fight in your weight class is coming soon, Israel Adesanya and Jared Cannonier are fighting. Don’t you like Adesanya very much?

“I don’t like him as a person. He doesn’t really relate to people. Like that’s arrogant.

– You don’t have the feeling that Adesanya in the UFC has been carefully passed over, for example by wrestlers, people who could transfer him, keep him down and beat him.

– You have tricked me – if we talk about Adesanya now they will say that I am sitting with nothing and crying. I would be interested in fighting with him and everything. As with the person who is considered the strongest. It would be interesting to check.

– He’s also handsome in some ways, you can’t say anything about him, he’s technically difficult to fight with people like Adesanya, but I think people are trying to defeat him, and I would advise you to press him hard . It seems to me that we need a fighter who will go hard with him. Clearly you can catch, but trying to dispatch a taller, longer-armed, longer-legged opponent who is also so sensitive is a mistake. This mistake is made by many.

– Who do you think is the best middleweight (Shlemenko weight class – 84 kg) in the history of MMA?

– Yes, this is such a question … I will not answer it. You ask me what the best middleweight is, and I have to name someone? ! Consider it standing in front of you.

– To rephrase: do you feel like you could fight on equal terms with any middleweight fighter?

– Naturally.

– Good. Was there such a fighter in your weight that you would watch and understand that you like the way he fights?

– Yes, there are a lot of these fighters, it’s just hard to name right away: Gegard Mousasi, Dan Henderson, there were different fighters in hand-to-hand combat.

– During our last conversation, you said that you could fight in Omsk. Something changed?

– There are movements. I’m working on it myself. It seems to me that it is an interesting experience and no one has had such an experience for a promoter to perform at home. Even Shamil Zavurov (head of Eagle FC. – “”), he played in a joint tournament with Fight Nights, then it turns out that I myself opened the tournament and will play in it myself -same. I have already fought without a second in Russia, without a second in America. Now it would be cool to win as a promoter.

– We are talking in Perm on July 1. Is there a date for the tournament in Omsk?

– September 30.