“Ian and I went to the boxing section together.” A Siberian farmer poses for a photo with Dana White and makes his slap league debut.

The Power Slap tournament is one of the pet projects of UFC President Dana White. This is easy to understand from the number of posts of the UFC President on social networks, and in these posts, in 99% of cases, the same thing happens: two strong men face each other … a resounding slap – the recipient falls. The idea of ​​​​hitting a person who does not defend himself is perceived without enthusiasm, but at different times it was promoted both in Russia and in the United States. One of the first heroes of high-level tournaments was Vasily Kamotsky (aka Vasya Pelmen), who will now probably be the first Russian to join Dana White’s league. If all goes well, on June 28 in Las Vegas, Kamotsky will try to spank the Pole Kamil Marusarz, nicknamed the Polar Bear. During this interview, we will move several times from the Krasnoyarsk Territory to the state of Nevada.

And we’ll talk about it again…

“So they don’t bother you for thanking you”

— On June 21, you published a photo with UFC President Dana White. How many people in the city of Ilansky (Krasnoyarsk Territory) do you think will see this photo and understand who is in it besides you?

– Half. It seems to me that almost the entire male population. A lot of people watch the fights here.

The league and I had long negotiations, then we reached a common denominator. They offered me more favorable conditions, which I accepted.

— How did these negotiations begin?

— I haven’t written to anyone myself. They wrote to me. At first they wrote to me directly, but I refused. Then other people came out and we started communicating via Messenger. All this happened after my fight with the Kazakh (Galymzhan Zhaslanov; June 2022, fight according to MMA rules. – “” note).

– What didn’t suit you?

– Finance. At the time, I had offers in Russia. And there, they offered less.

— So Dana White had to get outbid on a Russian offer in the slap league, plus the farm income you had?

— I don’t like talking about finances at all. Obviously everyone is interested in it, but I really don’t like it at all.

— Russian UFC fighters in 90% of cases, to enter the UFC, undoubtedly agree to the basic conditions: $ 10,000 for entry and the same amount for victory.

— Guys come to the UFC, they prove themselves… and they move forward, they make a career there. I’m not very good with slapping. Here, the financial aspect is important so they don’t break your head to thank you.

“Altaiskaya-70” and “Novosibirskaya-15”

— Khabib Nurmagomedov printed his first UFC contract at a computer club in Makhachkala at 5 a.m. When and how did you sign yours?

— At the beginning of this year, at home in Ilanskoye. I printed it, signed it, sent it.

—You came to America for your first fight. What is currently happening on your farm?

— The sowing season is over there, in the south it usually starts earlier, but this time we are a little later, it took a little longer. Now the guys from the couple are going to plow (a field that was not sown for the summer. – Note from ). The work is underway, my brothers are here, the team is already formed.

— Is it true that this year was very bad in terms of climate and that the spring was not successful?

— It was to the west. There were frosts there, but it did not affect the residents of neighboring farms. In general, the Krasnoyarsk Territory is a risky agricultural zone. Today the price of grain is very low and the price of diesel fuel is high, so it is fundamentally difficult.

— What type of wheat do you have?

– “Altai-70” and “Novosibirsk-15”.

— What happens in the fall after removing it?

— We take it to elevators, collection points and sell it. We leave some for seeds and food.

— You still don’t raise animals?

— I said it in an interview that was probably two years ago. Now I’m working on pigs again.

“You get lost in space and reappear”

— You now post a lot of videos and photos from the United States. How long have you been there?

– I came to the tenth grade, while I live in a hotel and train there, I don’t go to the gym. Today I’m just going to find out where I can train.

— How is training a week before a slap fight?

— Practice a side kick, like in boxing. First the iron, then the sharpening of the blow and the padding. There is no punching bag here, I just stand there, hitting the wall to make my hand a little harder.

In this version, there is also a rule: the legs remain stationary, shoulder-width apart, the heel cannot be twisted. Work only with the pelvis and body. Different organizations have different positions when they hit you. In Russia, we stayed at the table. And here we will hold the wand behind our back. After the hit, you have 30 seconds to recover, then you hit yourself. It is, of course, more convenient to hang on the table. Even if they knock you out, you will come to your senses.

— What is your current weight and how high are you benching now?

— My weight is 155 kg and I bench press between 130 and 140 kg, but I haven’t bench pressed to the max for a long time.

“It seems to me that your sport depends too much on the toss of a coin to determine who strikes first.” Hitting when you’ve just missed a hard shot is much more difficult.

– When you miss, your adrenaline goes up – you hit, in my opinion, even better. But that’s if they applauded you, woke you up, cheered you up. But if you were hit normally … while you were walking away … it’s different. When it hits the jaw or temple, it’s easier to knock a person out than when it hits the cheek.

– Can you describe the hardest hit you missed that didn’t knock you out, and what happened to you at that moment?

— The final in Poland… For a second, you lose yourself in space, then you reappear.

— Two MMA fighters told me that after knockdowns, entire rounds were erased from their memory.

– This has never happened before. And God grant that it never happens again. I feel like my memory is getting a little worse.

— Your nickname is Pelmen. Do you think Americans know what it is?

— Well, they have the word “dumpling” (Kamotsky translated the nickname literally. — Note “”). I love to eat dumplings, that’s why from the first tournaments in Russia they registered me under this nickname.

—Dana White didn’t ask you about choosing a nickname?

– No, I didn’t ask. We talked for probably half an hour.

– Actually, it’s a lot. His meetings with the fighters usually last about five minutes.

“He said he was happy to see me and that he decided to start slapping when he saw my fights. Then we went to the special Power Slap room. We took pictures, he signed my T-shirts and caps, we stood and chatted. Then I asked him if I could come to the numbers tournament where Conor was supposed to fight. He said I could.

— Alexander Volkov will be your second, and now you often appear with his friend Alexei Likharev. Have you known Volkov for a long time?

— We met several times during Punch Club tournaments. He came to support his friend Max Bulahtin. We just exchanged a few sentences and took photos.

— Did you come alone? Without a second or someone from Russia?

– No, there is no one, I came alone. There is nothing to do in Vegas. Somewhere they write: “Go ahead… take a walk…” What if you took a walk? It’s so hot here, forty kopecks. It’s downright sad.

— In MMA, it is customary to watch an opponent’s fights, but does it make sense to do this with slaps?

— I haven’t watched it at all. I’ve only seen Power Slap in a cut-up, that’s all. My friends send me more.

— What thoughts run through your head when you see a slap flying towards you?

“There are no thoughts, you just stand there, tense, holding your neck and your mouthguard. I lost my good mouthguard, or they “communized” it, but simple mouthguards, balls that cost fifteen hundred, are completely broken.

— Do you do exercises for your neck?

– Standards with a weight: a towel in your teeth, you hang the weight there and you raise it by tilting and lowering your head – that’s how you pump it up. Or you lie down and put a pancake on your forehead, raise your head.

“Ian weighed 30 kilos… He was huge”

— Did you start with powerlifting?

– In general, the very first sport was karate – I went there for a couple of months. Then I went to judo and sambo for a little over a year. Then I went to boxing. Then, in parallel with all this, I played football. Then at the institute – both powerlifting and football.

— For me, the most famous city in the Krasnoyarsk Territory is Dudinka. I heard about it from Petr Yan, the UFC champion.

— I always knew Dudinka, but Petr Yan still lived in Ilanskoye and we went to the boxing section together.

– Wow!

“But we were small at the time.” He weighed 30 kilos and I already weighed a hundred. We often see each other with the coach who trained us, me and him, because he still comes to get us milk.

— Are you and Peter following each other?

“Well, I am, but I don’t think he remembers me.” Maybe he doesn’t even know.

— He had a childhood on the streets, did he get noticed then?

— Shebutnoy was, yes.

– You are a Spartak fan. Can you remember which years?

– When in general there was a “fever”: Bugs in goal, Shafar, Levitsky… The last championship and the following seasons.

— Can you name your favorite foreign player and coach from your entire time at Spartak?

—Wojciech Kowalewski. And the coach, of course, Massimo Carrera, brought the championship.

— Are you watching the games now?

– I watch. The only thing I watch is Spartak. The Champions League is small. And now the European Championships – by the way, they take place here in the morning. At 6, 9 and 12 o’clock.

Live broadcasts of mixed martial arts tournaments can be seen on and Match! Fighter, as well as on the websites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.

More sports news in our telegram channel .