“We need big names.” Magomed Ismailov returns to ASA to take a very important revenge

In 2013, 26-year-old Magomed Ismailov lost his third professional MMA fight to 23-year-old Anatoly Tokov. This fight was the only one in Ismailov’s career where he had to strike in surrender. It all happened at the M-1 tournament in Moscow, Ismailov destroyed the locker room out of anger, paid 18,000 rubles for repairs (a third of the costs, as he himself remembers), but maintained a relationship warm with Tokov.

Then, no one imagined that Tokov would advance to the Bellator title fight and that Ismailov would turn out to be one of the most popular fighters in Russia. 10 years later, the ASA League managed to come to an agreement with both of them on a rematch. Interestingly, both have previously fought in the ASA, but last year Magomed Ismailov focused on fighting under boxing rules, and Tokov fought five fights in the United States since January 2019. 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 ). ASA Vice President Aslanbek Badaev elaborates.

— 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.

— Did Magomed’s negotiations with the RCC league influence this in any way? Could it be that he had to agree or disagree on something and then continue communicating with you?

— No, we were absolutely not focused on the RCC league. The question here is different: there is a pool of fighters who have already made a name for themselves. They are not in the championship race, they have no ambition to win belts and fight with hungry young people. I would say there is no motivation to fight with these athletes. And essentially, these are fighters with names who want to fight. And their fights bring something different from a media point of view, compared to the title fights.

I would say that Magomed Ismailov and Alexander Shlemenko are somehow trying to offer their services to RCC and AMC Fight Nights in the martial arts market, but now we have a counter-offer. We prepared something for Ismailov, and now he is fighting with us.

— 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.

Anatoly Tokov in the ASV league

—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 it would take place before Ramadan and this tournament would coincide with the ASA anniversary.

— The ASA League offered Eduard Vartanyan a huge sum for three fights. Up to a million dollars. He refused. And it can be assumed that this money turned out to be free and was offered to Magomed Ismailov.

—Actually, these two stories have absolutely no connection, but what you say also makes sense. When we negotiated with Eduard Vartanyan, we really wanted to keep him. Anyhow. And his appetites were fully satisfied. But now, looking back, we realize that we offered too much. And it’s not because Edik isn’t worth his money, it’s just because he was way outside the general framework of royalty payments. And probably, when we didn’t succeed, part of us was even happy with the result. Because it was a lot of money.

I won’t say that this directly influenced the negotiations with Magomed Ismailov, but the question is the approach… I said, we do a lot of tournaments, we have fighters with good statistics, but the problem is is that at the end of the year, they ask us: “What are you doing? » did you do this year? Yes, we say we had good fights, but the general public doesn’t always remember that. We need big names and we need to sign someone.

We have the possibility to recruit any fighter if it is important. We actually negotiated with Ngannou. There were very large sums, several million dollars. We negotiated with Romero and almost reached a million dollars. And there seemed to be an agreement, but then the political situation intervened and the plans changed a little.

Now that the league is 10 years old, we are proud of this number. Magomed Ismailov is in our league, he had four fights in the organization, he left when overall we had nothing to offer him in terms of development, and he himself wanted to try himself as free artist. And yes, we had misunderstandings and arguments. At one point Mairbeck said he wouldn’t be in the league, but the situation is changing and I really like the fact that we can be flexible in certain areas. That we can, for the sake of common success, put our principles aside and work for the good of the organization.

— Magomed Ismailov said that his last amount for an MMA fight was $300,000, and he also said that the next fight should bring him more. How did you solve this problem?

— The personal relationships of Mairbek and his son with Magomed play a big role. We cannot speak publicly about the amounts, but everyone was satisfied. There was a common task and everyone met halfway. Sometimes fighters name an initially inflated amount in order to get another one, which suits everyone equally. Conventionally you call 300 – you get 200, but 200 is also a great option for you.

I am not saying that Magomed lied or that he did not receive this kind of money. But when you want to play in the ACA league and when the ACA league wants you, it’s not difficult to find a compromise.

— Does the contract impose a fixed number of fights?

— We’re not talking about it yet, but we can think about it. For such fighters as Magomed Ismailov, Alexander Shlemenko, you can also name Dmitry Bikrev, Dauren Ermekov, Vladimir Mineev, it probably makes no sense to tie you to a long-term contract. This is part of why they are not competing in the ACA Grand Prix and the title race. Furthermore, Magomed’s position is not to fight with Muslims. Taking into account all these points, we understand that Magomed, having come to the ASA, will not be able to obtain permanent exercise there. Magomed is at that point in his career where he is taking one fight at a time. That doesn’t mean we signed him to a one-fight deal, but if you think about it logically, it doesn’t make sense for him to commit to a league on a long-term deal.

What’s good about him is that he is a free artist. He fights, gets good fees, makes history. Becomes known in the media. Here everyone can draw a conclusion.

— Which Russian fighter do you think, not counting Fedor and Alexander Emelianenko, will sell the most tickets in conventional units if we just put him in the main fight of the tournament?

— Let us clarify that there are no fighters in Russia whose income from the sale of tickets for fights would fundamentally change the situation in terms of investments and profits. If it is simply important to sell as many tickets as possible, then it seems to me that these are Shlemenko, Mineev, Ismailov, Raisov, Shtyrkov and Faridun Odilov… besides, Artem Reznikov also sells well tickets. These guys are pretty much equal.

To be completely honest and if we take specifically the visual component: the filling of the arena and the ability of people to applaud, I would generally cite Faridun Odilov. Today, Faridun sells the most tickets. The fans are literally crazy about this guy. During our last tournament, the capacity of the hall was eight thousand people. It’s difficult for me to give a percentage, but a significant part came from him. Yes, there are questions about the price category of these tickets, but if we talk about quantity, we need to talk about the level of Faridun Odilov. I believe that after the light heavyweight Grand Prix he could even fight with Ivan Shtyrkov. It would be a very serious fight: two antagonists – with different histories, with different audiences, with different styles. Certainly, he spent 2023 in a very powerful way: four fights and four early victories.

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