Vice President of ASA Promotion Aslanbek Badaev said in an interview with that the possible signing of a league contract with Magomed Ismailov has been under discussion since the end of 2023.
Ismailov is one of the most popular and highest paid fighters in Russia. The middleweight fought his last fight under MMA rules in December 2022, defeating Alexander Shlemenko in a five-round showdown. Ismailov, 37, also regularly performs under the rules of professional grappling and boxing.
On the evening of January 12, the ASA League announced the signing of a contract with Ismailov (18-3-1 in MMA), and on the 14th it became known that his opponent would be Anatoly Tokov (29-3).
— The last time Ismailov fought with you was December 13, 2020. How long ago did you start negotiating?
— Oral communication took place last year: the son of Mairbek Khasiev (founder of the ASV league, which later became the ASA league. – ), Zaurbek Khasiev, communicates well with Magomed. As you know, Magomed recently fought with Roman Kopylov in our league, so we were in contact. I’m talking about myself here too. We discussed some options for him. And Magomed was interested in the possibility of returning to the league. So, I guess you could say this story didn’t just start last week.
— At the end of 2023, did you know Magomed’s definitive answer?
— The decision was made in the New Year, maybe we made some decisions for ourselves at that time, but after the New Year we finally agreed on everything.
— From what I understand, at the time of signing the contract, Magomed Ismailov already knew the name of his opponent?
– Yes, he understood what they wanted to offer him. We just didn’t want to announce it officially.
—Did we say it would be a middleweight fight? What will Magomed 84 kg do?
— We have agreed that this is the intermediate division. They said that it will be held before Ramadan and this tournament will coincide with the anniversary of the ASA,” Badaev told .
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.
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.
