“We need to know Asbarov’s fee for the fight with Papin.” They want to organize a fight against a boxer for the ASA heavyweight champion

The ASA League hosts eight-man tournaments in different weight categories. Heavyweight champion Evgeny Goncharov made it through the quarterfinals and semifinals, but while the league is determining the finalists, boxer Soslan Asbarov began to speak convincingly about a fight with Goncharov. He boxed for the amateur team, then disappeared, and upon returning he immediately knocked out one of the best fist fighters in Russia and won five fights in professional boxing, defeating Dmitry Kudryashov and Alexei Papin. Asbarov now wants to fight in MMA. The target is ASA champion Evgeny Goncharov, who defeated Anton Vyazigin in five tough rounds on February 9.

ASA Vice President Aslanbek Badaev says:

— For the semi-final of the Heavyweight Grand Prix, the fight between Goncharov and Vyazigin was not as fun as everyone hoped. How do you like it?

— I liked that: the guys fought on their feet for five rounds, the big ones. Every exchange, every attack or counter-attack from one of the guys made me think that now someone might fall. This was not a half-hearted shootout. It was a good fight with a good tonnage of punches, and at one point I thought the guys might have a bonus. But maybe I overestimated this fight a little.

The work that Anton and Zhenya did…many may not understand at what level they fought. These are five series of continuous blows, with the need to avoid them and defend oneself; without any trace of struggle. It’s expensive. I think the main fight was at least good.

— In all the time I’ve been watching MMA, I’ve had two thoughts about the rule changes. The first is to make the round score more differentiated so that a fighter can get 10:3 or 10:5; the second is to paint the central part of the flooring in a contrasting color and the fighter who spends the most time there becomes the winner, if there is no clear advantage. What ideas did you have for changing the rules?

“It seemed to me that it would be interesting to evaluate the fight as a whole. Just like it was in Pride. If we take an example from wrestling, there were three periods of two minutes each, the score was reset between them and you could confidently win one period 6:0, but lose twice 0:1 and lose in total. It seems like you made more, but lost in some periods. It’s the same here: you can do more, but in some segments your opponent will do more and you will lose. If we talk about this fight, Goncharov was better here, but the judging system would be more perfect if it could evaluate the fight as a whole. At the same time, when people fight for 25 minutes, it’s difficult to fully assess how the fight is going. I believe there won’t be an ideal rating system anyway, people will continue to argue. And if there are no heated arguments, no emotions, it will also be worse.

— During the fight, did you think that if the Grand Prix final was between Kornilov and Viazigin (Adam Bogatyrev and Kirill Kornilov fight in the second Grand Prix semi-final), then the result would be a little different than what did people and the league itself expect it?

— During the fight, I had the following thoughts: if Kornilov wins there and Viazigin wins today, what will happen then? But Kornilov hasn’t won yet, I think Bogatyrev also has something to say about this, so it’s too early to think about it. You always have scenarios in mind. There would probably simply be no nerves in the fight between Vyazigin and Kornilov – they train together.

— In the UFC, when the score is announced, they name the names of the judges. In Russian leagues, they did not do this before, they just said who won, but you have an intermediate option: they name the score, but indicate the author of the score not by his last name, but call him “Referee #1,” “Referee #2,” and so on. Is it so that if something happens, not to create pressure on this or that judge?

– Probably yes. Previously, the score was not named and was not entirely clear to the viewer. And we decided to announce the score. Even though the judges don’t seem to hide their last names, they don’t mind us calling them. We haven’t thought about it globally. We now have this practice: we periodically publish notes somewhere. Today they posted it right after the tournament. We can announce names, the UFC does. We’re probably not there yet, but we’ll get there. There is no secret there.

— As vice-president, can you know who is “judge No. 1” and who is “judge No. 2”?

– Yes, of course, I will find out, because sometimes the story does not correspond to common sense in the meaning of the word we hear. Today a judge gave it 4:1 (officially 49:46 – Rating from ) based on the results of five rounds, I found out who it was. But he explained his point of view and explained it competently. Generally speaking, we are close to announcing the names of the judges, but we are not there yet.

— Do you believe in the fight between Soslan Asbarov and Evgeny Goncharov?

– More yes than no. Not 100%, but more yes. The movement began, the mechanism was launched and we became interested in this story. We’ve never allowed someone to come in from the outside and get into a staring duel after the main fight, but today it happened. That says something.

— It seems to me that the most equal rules for a boxer and an MMA fighter are a cage, MMA gloves, punches and kicks, but without wrestling.

— We definitely won’t do that, we’re an MMA organization. If someone comes to us with the intention of fighting in MMA, then you are welcome. Additionally, Soslan wants to fight more than one fight, but try his hand at MMA in general. It is not necessary to make such a fight a championship, we can sanction it as a ranking fight, even as a five-round fight, we can be flexible, but it is a fight according to MMA rules .

— Will Soslan Asbarov earn more for himself than Alexander Emelianenko for his fight with Magomed Ismailov?

— Then the exchange rate was different and Emelianenko, like Ismailov, received remuneration in dollars. But now we have to find out. The press mentioned the amount of 15 million rubles as fees for Soslan. I can say that 15 million rubles is the amount that the winner of the Grand Prix will receive. If Evgeny Goncharov earns 15 million for winning the final fight, it makes sense to talk about these numbers in the next fight, but again we need to calculate and calculate everything. We need to find out what fees Asbarov received in the fight with Papin in order to have some explanation and logic. Because when we negotiate with UFC fighters, they can also say: “And we received $100,000 + $100,000.” I’m speaking figuratively. But that doesn’t mean we’ll give the same amount. This is the starting point for us. Asbarov vs. Goncharov is a high-profile fight, but everything needs to be analyzed.

— It’s even difficult to visually imagine Soslan Asbarov with MMA gloves, shorts and bare feet. Despite the fact that he is an excellent boxer. Can you imagine?

– I imagined, but I don’t see Soslan’s chances, I talk about it without offending him. And that’s just my opinion. And so – at least it will turn out to be interesting. And there will still be guesses – how this fight will go, how Goncharov will do it. Like Mayweather with Conor (McGregor), everyone knew who was going to win, but it was interesting to see. In fact, some were even starting to believe that Conor could win. This is perhaps the most high-profile event, given that Soslan has already beaten Kudryashov and Alexei Papin. This is a global fight.

– Alexander Volkov, Sergey Pavlovich, Anatoly Malykhin, Valentin Moldavsky – who do you consider the best heavyweight in the world with a Russian passport?

— I can’t help but consider Evgeny Goncharov the best. I truly believe he would have defeated any of them. But I also understand that, on any given day, any one of these fighters can beat any one of these fighters. I like Malykhin, but now he has started moving up the weight categories. I think it’s not a very good idea for him, considering his evolution as a heavyweight. He’s undefeated, he’s tough, he hits and fights, he’s a national championship medalist in freestyle wrestling. Pavlovich can knock out anyone. Trained Moldovan, with a good base… But I chose Goncharov. Today he did not show himself 100%, did not engage in wrestling, did not prove himself as an MMA fighter and decided to box. If the fighters above stood in front of him, he could defeat them.

— Eduard Vartanyan won the ASA Grand Prix, but refused to extend his contract, although he was offered more than 50 million rubles for three fights. He will now fight in the Grand Prix of the “Our Business” league. What should he do to resume negotiations with the ASA?

“We made him our offer, but he refused it.” He’s currently fighting in another promotion, so I don’t think we should make him an offer right now. If he wants to come back, he needs to let us know.

— Won’t your victory over Damir Ismagulov under K-1 rules with MMA gloves make you call him?

“It will change absolutely nothing for us.” They are recognizable fighters, but they fight by different rules. As Kamil Gadzhiev said, this is a kind of deception of the public. Same names, same fighters, but different sport. It’s like MMA fighters throwing snowballs.

Edik said: “Aslanbek will watch this fight. » I promise I won’t watch it. Not because it’s a principle, but because it doesn’t interest me. I didn’t watch the fight between Shtyrkov and Ismailov, I didn’t watch the fight between Mineev and Romankevich, I didn’t watch the fight between Mineev and Shtyrkov, because these rules don’t interest me. I understand them, everyone does what is best for them, but if you want to hear our results, this fight will in no way increase the chances of signing with us or returning in better conditions for Eduard. We already understand who Edik Vartanyan is. He is a top fighter. After winning the Grand Prix, he was worth the money that was offered to him. But if we talk about his return, these will be new negotiations and new conditions, because the relevance of Eduard Vartanyan immediately after the fight with Artem Reznikov and now is different for us.

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.