ACA Grand Prix quarterfinal and potentially one of Russia’s most interesting fights in the lightweight division Rashid Magomedov versus Ali Bagov was stopped by the league’s founder Mairbek Khasiev. After four rounds, Khasiev climbed into the cage and disqualified the fighters. In MMA, such cases are extremely rare, but before that, Bagov and Magomedov received several legitimate warnings from the referee for passivity. “” correspondent Vadim Tikhomirov and vice-president of ASA Aslanbek Badayev We tried to talk about what happened.
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– Tell us step by step how to stop the fight.
– It all started in the second round, when we realized that the fight was not going well. I approached the jury and asked what could be done. He asked if the judges agreed the fight didn’t add up and found out how we could influence that. The referee gave a warning first. Then the order was given to the corners of the fighters to somehow change the situation. Then the referee took a point from the fighters. And in that vein, four laps have passed, but the situation has not changed. I approached league president Alexei Yatsenko and Yaragi Gitaev, we discussed everything and agreed that this could not continue. That there should be a disqualification if they don’t turn the tide of the fight. But we did not make such a decision ourselves. Mairbeck was upstairs in the VIP box.
– I called him, he said: “I’m going down, I understand everything.” That is to say, he already understood why we were calling. He came down and it was almost in the fifth round when he walked into the cage and said like you heard it.
Mayrbeck climbs into the cage. Do you already know what he will say?
– I understood that it would most likely be a stoppage, because to enter the cage, say “let’s fight” and leave … Well, they would start fighting again. It’s unlikely. When he entered the cage, I realized that was the end.
– And closer to the battle, you had no premonition that everything would be exactly as it is today. That Rashid and Ali don’t want to fight?
“I had no doubts about them. And there were no prerequisites for that. There was no objection from them either. I spoke with Rashid, Ibrahim (league matchmaker. – “”) spoke with Ali. We asked Ali if he was ready and told him we would contact Rashid later. Ali gave a positive answer, he was already waiting for an opponent. I turned to Rashid, he clarified, “What did Ali say?” I said Ali was ready, Rashid replied, “I’m in business too.” We were a little worried about Rashid’s motivation, if he would be ready, even if we understood that his level allowed us to fight not only Ali Bagov…
– And now the duel of looks seemed to be such that it seemed that everything was fine.
“We are talking three hours after everything happened. New details?
We spoke to other fighters. In general, we are understood. It’s funny now to read comments in the spirit: “The League is guilty of bringing these two fighters together!” The Brotherhood took over.” Sorry, but a few hours ago many were looking up to that fight and saying it was the most interesting fight in the entire Grand Prix, and now they’ve started retroactively saying it wasn’t worth no need to bring these guys together in the quarterfinals. Lots of opinions, but everyone understands everything. And everything went well, because the guys didn’t give a damn about their contracts, the organizers, the fans. I do not know how it was done: the contract or somehow non-verbally it became clear to them.
Yes, the fight could have gone to the end, Bagov’s hand would have been lifted by the judges’ decision…
– … was Bagov leading in cards?
— I didn’t see the cards, but I found out who won. I was told Bagov was winning the fight because he was doing takedowns. It turns out that if he had won, we would have supported him and cheered on the fighter who made such a fight. We had one lap left, we had to make a decision. There were two options: the head judge could have taken the microphone and announced what had happened, but in the best traditions, Mairbek Khasiev entered the cage and expressed his opinion.
– My feeling is that they didn’t have a literal agreement, but everyone understood that it was more pleasant to work with this opponent by 50% and everything would be fine.
– I agree. I don’t think they sat down and said, ‘Let’s agree and fight like this. I would have guessed that when Ali wasn’t hitting hard (although punching isn’t his forte), Rashid, due to his human qualities, also decided not to hit hard.
– At the same time, they have already received good fees for this fight?
– That’s money at the top UFC tops. Not superstars, but tough fighters. In general, in Grands Prix everyone has individual contracts, there is no fixed amount for quarters and semis. The fixed amount for the finals only is $50,000 to enter the fight, and the winner receives an additional $150,000. And the total price of this Grand Prix, if you add up all the fees, is around a million dollars.
Mayrbeck said the fighters would receive nothing for the fight. That said, we know that fighters are sometimes paid part of the fee, even if they made the weight, and that their opponent, for example, withdrew from the fight. No idea paying at least a minimum – just for a training camp and a weight race?
– The Sochi tournament turned out to be the most expensive this year in terms of expenses. And who’s going to pay us for what happened today? For criticism? For the failed Grand Prix? We brought Artem Reznikov to Sochi for a looks duel with the winner of this pair. And now it turns out that we usually have to look for a new opponent for him. Is someone going to reimburse us for this?
– A week ago there was a Fight Nights tournament, where Dmitry Bikrev and Ruslan Kolodko also had a very average fight. Kamil Hajiyev then called what was happening in the battle a “masturbation”, and it seemed like a difficult reaction. Is it possible to assume that Mayrbeck saw this fight and today decided to hold a master class on real tough reactions?
– I’m not sure Mayrbeck watches fights in another league. I cannot confirm it. He didn’t discuss anything with us. I think the situations were different: in our league there was a fight between Artem Reznikov and Davy Ramos, also not the most spectacular fight, but it was a fight, we saw that Artem chose the tactic of working as number two. He implemented his plan and the adversary could not find an antidote. And here the fighters frankly did not fight. They imitated, played tag and so on. I think in such a situation, Kamil could react, and we saw that Kamil came out with a microphone and reacted. And here, too, there were no other options.
– Over the past 2-3 years, it has become clear that Kamil speaks most often and best in Russian MMA, if we take non-fighters. At the same time, Mayrbeck seemed to create a very powerful opposition to him for a long time, because he also had finesse, interior and humor. What happened today, doesn’t it mean that Mairbek has a desire to fully compete with Kamil Gadzhiev as a speaker and now he will appear more often?
– Mayrbek is not enough, and we often talk to him about it, but Mayrbek is a busy man, he cannot afford to be constantly inside the MMA movement. He will always be interesting with such precise statements, press conferences and such situations. But it’s not worth waiting for him to comment on every MMA event, just like Kamil. If we miss him, that’s not bad. If Mayrbeck had always spoken somewhere, maybe he wouldn’t have been so interesting.
– Final – and who can now be called to replace the Grand Prix, so that it is interesting and so that a person can fight?
Potential names have been named. Someone was talking about Hakran Dias, who had an even fight with Yusuf Raisov, someone was talking about Davy Ramos, who had a good skirmish with Artem Reznikov. You were talking about Marif Piraev. I don’t even go into FightMatrix anymore, because I’m already imagining who is. Two months ago, I was just looking for an opponent for Bagov. And I communicated with many people: with Mansur Barnawi (we almost agreed, but the political situation changed our minds), we contacted Loik Radjabov, we had communication with Akhmed Aliyev. There were many people who communicated, but none of them worked. We’ll find someone anyway.
Source : MatchTV
I am Sandra Jackson, a journalist and content creator with extensive experience in the news industry. I have been working in the news media for over five years. During this time, I have worked as an author and editor at various outlets producing high-quality content that attracts readers from different demographics.
