Sergei Spivak he wasn’t even 25 when he made his UFC debut and immediately got two top opponents. First, the Moldovan lost to Walt Harris in a minute, then Spivak was sent to play in Australia. Tai Tuivasa (now one step away from the title fight) was supposed to destroy the newcomer in his stands in Melbourne, but Sergey survived and scored the opponent himself in the third round.
“You know, I took my first loss hard,” Sergey said. “But after that I started training more. If you watch my fight with Tai Tuivasa, you will see that I weigh 103 kg there. Because he started running 20 kilometers five times a week. Imagine such distances for a heavyweight. And he could run for an hour and a half. In general, if you notice, I immediately began to fight with difficult opponents. There was no such thing as I came, and there was a kind of buildup, so the opposition was gradually made harder.
I know there are people who work with psychologists. But I don’t believe it, I’m a little different. Yet no one knows what you have inside and how you feel about it. I think it’s better to do it yourself. I’m always like that on my own – whatever I do, I’ll do it from A to Z. And with the UFC, I think God himself decreed my fate, that I’m here today. As a child, I took on such a burden: after school I went to three training sessions at once. Judo, then jiu-jitsu, then boxing. And so I’ve been training since I was 10 somewhere. I remember that I left the house at 7:45 a.m. and arrived around 10-11 p.m. The body is young, it has absorbed everything well. He played judo and wrestling a lot, won international tournaments. In sambo, he became champion of Moldova, was twice world champion in hand-to-hand combat. Boxing has not had much success in competitions. I remember one fight very well. I know I won, but they didn’t give me points, and most importantly, at the last second, the opponent hits, really, with the very last shot, and my nose goes to one side. And I did not fall, but the situation is with the nose. I went to the doctor, he said everything was fine, the channels were straight, the only thing was that the bones were bent. He said if I’m a fighter, there’s no point in putting him in the right position, and the next day I went to practice. It hurts to let go, but I did.
Somewhere at the age of 14, I have already seen what the UFC is. I liked the photo and the fact that you can make money with it.
Spivak is 27, his stats are 14-3, UFC 5-3. He is the youngest UFC fighter in the 120 kg division. Some time ago, the heavyweight even made it into the top 15. Among the notable events – Spivak had to fight with Alexei Oleinik (victory by decision), then he knocked out American football star Greg Hardy, and above all, few Russian-speaking fighters have had more fights with the most dangerous UFC heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou. Spivak trains with Ngannou in Las Vegas, and before that he sought adventures in Stary Oskol with Fedor Emelianenko and in Moscow at the Alexander Volkov Gym.
“Fyodor had my very first serious training camp,” Spivak says of a photo from 2016, where the strongest lineup of fighters is captured in the Emelianenko hall: Fedor’s team and the amateur team. Russian with Umar Nurmagomedov and Magomed Ankalaev. – We trained very well, I want to go back and train again. When I first saw Fedor, I immediately felt a strong energy from him. He doesn’t seem to stand out from the others, but he has that. And, it seems to me, he was already born a fighter. I never fought with him, but Fedor gave a lot of advice, approached, showed what to watch out for. It was clear that he put his soul into it. I was still green then, although I think even now I haven’t trained for a heavyweight. He showed that the fight shouldn’t be stopped if he started working in an episode. He showed me how to get away from the line of attack.
Then he trained in the gym with Alexander Volkov. Their sparring is always very difficult, where the guys spare no one. I even remember that several times I could vomit after training there because of loads.
– Does Volkov himself train hard?
“He always works hard. At the same time, he did not let me down and, in principle, if he understands that a person is knocked down, he will not finish me off. Sasha is a different person in training [на фоне интервью], he is hardworking, intelligent, competently approaches what he does. Plus, I know he’s one of the best fighters in the world, and I understand it’s going to hurt with him.
– When you realized you were going to train with Ngannou, was there excitement?
– Stage fright, of course, were. As Alexander Aleksandrovich Karelin said, in front of you is a person who is not from the hospital. But with any opponent before the fight, there can be nervousness. My trainer told me that even with a beginner, you need special control because you never know what he is ready for. Francis trains properly. Many complain, but he never caused me a single injury.
In general, I went there deliberately and I knew that he was training there. Always looked for the opportunity to train with him. We have known each other for a long time. Even when he wasn’t in the UFC, I came to train in Paris and trained with him there. He was 5-1, he was 29 and I was 19. He is much stronger now. It’s 100 percent. He is very hardworking. However, he remains a simple guy. It is said that in Cameroon he eats with ordinary people on the street, he did not get up at all.
– With Ngannou, it turned out to be a rather strange situation. He won the title fight, but, first, he injured his knee and, second, he allegedly made his conflict with the UFC as much as possible, claiming he was grossly underpaid in the league. Do you know anything about his return?
– I see Ngannou almost every day at the UFC Performance Institute, he already does exercises that put a lot of pressure on the knee. I think he will be back soon. The last time we spoke to him, I realized he was feeling much better. But we can’t talk about a date yet, I’m not sure he signed a contract with the UFC. As you know, they have swings there.
– The perfect word.
– Well, that’s how it is. I would say 80-90% he will return to the UFC. Looks to me like the UFC will make him a good offer, he’ll make some money. And for the UFC, he is important as a champion.
– With whom for you, just as a fan, would the Ngannou fight be the most interesting?
– It’s a pity that Tom Aspinall is now injured. Excellent fighter, he could well reach the fight for the title. It is mobile, fast, penetrates well, reduces the distance. If you take our fight, then he literally ate me there. I did not find the distance at all. It seems that I understood before the fight what I have to work on. I thought he would open up a bit (especially when he finished). But in our fight he threw one or two punches and quickly left, I didn’t have time to meet him. Explosive, fast, good fight. He, like me, started his journey from childhood, and it’s hard to surprise such fighters with something.
– What does your preparation look like?
– Yes, just now I saw my opponent, I wished him good luck. For me it’s just a sport, I understand that a person works, that he has a family, a health. There is no poison breathing on him. I’m not that person, I’m not raised like that and I respect all fighters. In general, it’s interesting: firstly, I rode in different halls, and secondly, now I started to communicate well with a lot of guys. And even though we didn’t become friends, we still talked to them (I try to communicate respectfully with everyone), shared something with each other, and it’s not very good to fight anymore late.
Who will be your seconds?
– Ilir Latifi (interim UFC fighter), my friend Roman Valikov and also found himself a Mexican boxing trainer. His name is Mark…
It turns out that my child went to kindergarten. The woman who works there introduced me to her husband who is a boxer. He took me to this boxing trainer’s gym. I’m always looking for an opportunity to train in a new place.
Recently there was even a guy from Great Britain, Joe Joyce (professional boxer with stats of 14-0. – “”). Look – big, heavyweight. As soon as I realized he would be training here, he came over and said, “I know your achievements in boxing, please give me the opportunity to train with you.” He invited me to one of his practice sessions. We boxed for three rounds, as is usually the case with boxers, then another person replaced me for three rounds, then, it seemed, another. Can’t say I missed anything there. I understood that he was a good boxer, but I was interested – I wanted to get into his element, prove myself and take on something new. Because I know that even though it’s hard for me, I’m still going to grow at least a hundredth of a percent.
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.