“Security could round up 22 people in a second.” Worked at a club and played volleyball, and now fights in the UFC

Until recently, Uzbekistan was represented in the UFC by four fighters. Their names: Nursultan, Mahmud, Zarrukh (recently kicked out of the league) and Bogdan. The latter, named Guskov, grew up in a Russian family, speaks very warmly about the city of Dukent and has lived in Russia for more than 10 years.

31 years Bogdan Guskov entered the UFC with a 14-2 record and his Moscow dream almost came true. He left Uzbekistan, worked on the installation of ventilation shafts (Guskov recalls in an interview that it was more difficult to dismantle something built under the USSR than to install a new one), then was security guard at a club on Tsvetnoy Boulevard and took up MMA. First – Cherkizovskaya Hall, then – Akademicheskaya. In the first fight, the dream did not break, but hit the fists of Volkan Oezdemir. Guskov now faces 35-year-old Zach Pauga at UFC Fight Nights 236 in Las Vegas. As we begin the interview, heavy rain falls behind Guskov.

—Is this weather coming to Las Vegas?

– To be honest, I was very surprised by this. I thought it was the desert, the sun, the heat. And here it rains most of the time. I didn’t expect this at all.

— There is a detail in your previous interviews: you are a candidate for a master of sport in volleyball. Where did you complete the candidate?

“I come from a small town myself and that’s where I started playing sports. He practiced athletics, javelin throwing and running. And other than that, yes, I played volleyball at a good level. I was accepted into the city’s national team quite early and started competing at the national level. We played in republican tournaments in Uzbekistan. And there they awarded this title.

— What position did you play?

– I succeeded. I wasn’t very tall, so I usually played in the third zone.

— In your opinion, who will win in a fight: a tall classic volleyball player or a fighter in the category up to 56.7?

– Um, well, I think a volleyball player is a very developed athlete. Whatever anyone says, it is the masses who decide. And I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw that a volleyball player would suddenly win in a street fight. These are guys who have both a blast and the loads in their sport are very serious.

— You said you worked as a security guard at a nightclub and mentioned a particular bar. As I remember, when UFC stars began to be brought to Russia for seminars in 2013-2014, they were very often taken to this very club. Do you remember it?

— Yes, yes, I have a lot of photos just before Jon Jones’ first fight with Alexander Gustafsson (took place in 2013 — “” note). They both came here and were just chilling in the bar where I worked.

— So you took photos with them precisely as a security guard, and not as a fighter?

— I was working as a security guard then, but I had already started training at Martial Arts Club No. 1, it was just the club that brought them. I trained in boxing in Uzbekistan, then moved to Moscow. I had a break for about three years, and after three years it was probably the work at the club that influenced me. I saw these fighters, a spark lit and I wanted to try. I decided to continue my journey in martial arts.

Bogdan Guskov and Alexander Gustafsson (Photo: personal archive of Bogdan Guskov)

– In other words, if you worked as a security guard at another club, maybe you wouldn’t have gone so far in MMA now?

– I think yes. What lit the spark was the fact that famous fighters were coming, I looked and thought, “Wow! These are the heroes I watched from Uzbekistan. I had good boxing skills, but there was no fighting. Boxing no longer brought the emotions it had before, because Fedor Emelianenko was in full swing, in principle, MMA was popular at that time. And I started to tighten the fight. Marshall Savchuk helped me a lot with this. I trained at Martial Arts Club No. 1 in Cherkizovskaya. And I reached it. And he just had a really good team.

— You tried to get out of the club without a fight. They said you had a good security team. Do you remember at least one use of force episode?

— In fact, the security service there was very well organized: twenty-two people. And they could be together in a second if something happened. It is difficult to do anything with such opposition. But we never had anything like beating people. Maybe use force, pin her against the wall somewhere, knock her over a little, but nothing more. Unfortunately, people behave differently when they are intoxicated.

— It turns out that you lost your first fight in the UFC, but you fought against a very experienced opponent. How are you mentally adapting now?

“Actually, now everything is going according to plan, but at first I came out short-term and the path to this fight was difficult. And it was not so much the mental state that played a role, but the lack of preparation time. Now everything is in order – I had a good camp in my home gym “Gor MMA” in Moscow. We arrived in Vegas early, I’m acclimatized, so I feel a thousand percent better than before the first fight.

— My colleague Alexander once made an ironic video about your trainer Gor Azizyan, blaming him for the defeat of a fighter from your gym, Johnny Walker. Gore, among other things, recorded you on video and asked you: can you beat a journalist if something happens? Now everyone involved has let go, including Gore, but I wonder how you viewed the episode as a whole at that point?

– On the one hand, I treated this as some sort of PR that they both get. On the other hand, I was in the hall at that time, I saw Johnny Walker plowing, as we plowed. And for me, it was also an attempt to offend Horus. But nothing more. I didn’t take it personally; of course I wasn’t going to hit anyone, but it was a bit unpleasant.

— Do you have any links with Dmitry Sosnovsky, your teammate, who was sentenced to a fairly long prison sentence?

– Yes, we keep in touch, maybe not as often as we would like, but we communicate, and God willing, everything will soon be resolved – and Dima will be free.

— Is he eligible for parole and have you asked him if he plans to return to mixed martial arts?

“Unfortunately, so far they haven’t said anything concrete about how he could be released early. God willing, he will soon be free.

The last time we spoke, I realized that Dima is very passionate about sports. He studies there. So I hope his fuse is lit and his fire doesn’t go out.

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.