Russian MMA fighter Edouard Vartanian In a conversation with , he assessed the predisposition of Olympic freestyle wrestling champion Zaurbek Sidakov to mixed martial arts.
Sidakov, 28, became the Olympic champion at the Tokyo Games in the weight category up to 74 kg. Earlier it became known that the Russian would not be able to participate in the Paris Olympics, after which Sidakov himself, in a conversation with a correspondent, said that he did not exclude his transition to MMA.
— It is increasingly said that Zaurbek Sidakov can move on to mixed martial arts. What would you wish or advise him?
“We basically have to see what he can do.” But his wrestling is absolutely not predisposed to MMA, I can say that in advance. He has a lot of manual work and a very flexible fight. His fighting style is not relevant to MMA. He fights technically, viscously, as if he remained glued to his opponents.
— Don’t you feel that Olympic champions are generally overrated when they move to mixed martial arts?
– These are all individual cases. It depends on the style used by the wrestler. The same Romero, if you look at his fight, you can say that he is relevant for MMA. He is explosive, he fought as the distance was closing. Deception and passing are relevant. You can replace wrestling feints with stand-up feints. And that’s how he began to work in mixed martial arts. I began to walk less and work more with my hands.
— Do you agree that it is important for him not to get carried away with the striking techniques and to maintain his basic skills?
— The transition of strikers and wrestlers is very different. Nevertheless, the fight begins in a standing position, which means that you initially have an advantage. A striker with good sensitivity simply needs to work so that the distance is not shortened with him. A wrestler, on the contrary, needs to get closer. And if he fights with a good striker, he will miss his blow. So there are completely different tactics, technical components and, accordingly, techniques that you need to master, ”Vartanyan told .
Eduard Vartanyan won the ACA Lightweight Grand Prix and will soon fight with Alexander Grozin in the “Our Business” promotion.
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.
TV Match
More sports news in our telegram channel .
Source : MatchTV

I am Ashley Ortiz and I am a professional journalist working for Athletistic. My specialty is in sports journalism, particularly boxing. I have written articles for some of the most renowned publications on the subject, and my work has been featured across both print and digital media platforms.