“I think Ismailov will win.” Kamil Gadzhiev – about the first important fights of 2024

Since 2010, Alexander Sarnavsky was considered one of the best lightweights in Russia, but managed to stay without fights and without a league for a year and a half. In 2023, Magomed Sulumov won the AMC Fight Nights belt, but, on the contrary, he lacked victories and high-level status for people to start fearing him in the division up to 70.3 kg. With these two fighters, Kamil Gadzhiev managed to put together a very good fight for the lightweight title, which will headline the AMC Fight Nights tournament in Moscow on the evening of February 23. Two popular personalities in media football, Raizen and Sibscan, will face each other. In an interview with , Kamil talks about the fights to expect and much more.

— In March, several tournaments will take place over 10 days: ACA, Ural FC and “Our Business”. If you could only look at one, which one would you choose?

– Magomed Ismailov – Anatoly Tokov at ACA 172. In other tournaments… Vasilevsky vs Belaz (URAL FC tournament – “”), I’m not at all sure to watch. The result – yes, maybe there will be some kind of cool knockout. But I’m definitely not going to sit and watch it. In “Our Cause” I will watch the fight between Eduard Vartanyan and Damir Ismagulov. I know there will be three or four more fights, but I won’t watch them, just the result. And Tokov vs. Ismailov is a must. Another issue is that the ACA hasn’t done anything yet, in my opinion, that can be seen by everyone.

– Who will win in the battle between Tokov and Ismailov?

– I’m thinking of Ismailov.

— When you made this announcement, Alexander Sarnavsky and Magomed Sulumov were standing side by side. I looked at them and was surprised at how much bigger the first one was. When you watch them yourself, do you want to be upset that you bet $10,000 on Sulumov?

– No. I have already fought 10,000 of them with the movement that was created around them. Even if I lose them, I invested them, on the one hand, in the movement, and on the other hand, in Artem Reznikov. So that he shows his best form in the next fight.

— I already asked this question to Alexander himself and I want to ask you: do you imagine Alexander Sarnavsky as a long-time Fight Nights champion, one of the ambassadors of AMC?

– No. One year maximum.

– So what ?

“Either way, I think he’s in the latter stages of his career.” Although he is still strong, a year or two is all. He’s just an honest person and he won’t embarrass himself later if he looks bad.

— If we remove the entire media component of the conflict with Alexander Shlemenko, don’t you think that you signed Sarnavsky in one of his best versions?

– At one of the best moments for him. He fights well and makes noise. Largely thanks to his conflict with Sasha.

— You had fights between TV presenters: Sergei Badyuk with Igor Ryazantsev; journalists: Alexei Safonov with Nikita Burchak, How good do you think the fight between media footballers Raizen and Sibskan will be compared to these fights?

– Vladimir Voitekhovsky and Timur Soloviev also fought with me. I didn’t like Badyuk’s fight at all. Soloviev’s fight was great. The fight between Burchak and Safonov was great, despite the quick ending. The fight between Raizen and Sibskana will probably be moderately ugly.

– Compared to the Safonov-Burchak fight?

— The quality is worse, the volume is greater.

—If you had unlimited money now, what fight would you fight?

– Now I have to say: Mineev – Ismailov. But Vagab Vagabov is probably Vladimir Mineev. It doesn’t matter if it’s MMA or kickboxing.

— We haven’t heard from Vladimir Mineev for a long time.

– He is in the Northern Military District. We spoke a few days ago, he’s still there. Besides, he will be at the tournament on the 23rd.

— Are there at least outline dates for the fight with Ismailov?

– It seems to me that he will return in April, two months to prepare. It would be possible to make some noise in June.

— It is believed that it is not very good to organize noisy fights in summer.

— It exists: there are no students, etc. But I know how to sell this fight – I will sell it!

— When was the last time you watched an interview with one of the fighters?

“Only clips are sent to me when a fighter starts acting weird and my name pops up somewhere.” There have been a few interviews recently. I see them, but generally, no. It’s not that I don’t like fighters or interviewers, I don’t have time.

— You said you had to call Movsar Evloev. This happened after he stated that he could win the fight against you early in response to your words that he didn’t have enough early wins yet. Did you call right away?

– Well yes, we and our compatriots quickly called. First, Adam and I called together; he was visiting. Then he contacted us and we talked. But if he and I were in Moscow, we would not be too lazy to meet. It’s just that at the meeting we would have talked about completely different things. On the phone, we had to quickly explain to each other what we meant. It is important.

— For ten years, in one way or another, your name has often come up in interviews. Can you remember when you felt the strongest negative emotions?

– It happened. At one point, Ali Bagautinov made me angry when we started arguing with him. I made him angry too, and he made me angry. We had a dispute related to his fight against Zhalgas Zhamagulov. With the costs that followed, etc. It was very emotional, probably because I take everything to heart. Ali is still a close person to me. Then I was really outraged.

— Fedor Emelianenko appears very muscular and strong in his latest interview. Haven’t you seen it visually?

– Not yet. He was probably pumped up. Fedya simply always took care of her health. And now it’s a time when I’ve finished my career and I need to train physically, to train, to keep myself in shape. Because at 47, a person must be constantly pumped up. To keep testosterone, to be healthy. That’s why it’s probably true.

– Fedor Emelianenko at 47 vs. Brock Lesnar, 46 at UFC 300 – have you ever thought about such a fight?

— No, this is the last Bellator format. Objectively, the conditions are not the same. We Russians would pay attention, but this is not a fight for the world community.

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.