Shamil Zavurov, president of the Khabib Nurmagomedov league, comments on the main topics ahead of the EFC 50 tournament in Nur-Sultan.
– In December 2021, Alexander Emelianenko did not say your league very well, and you made it clear that you would not have it. But at the last tournament, Khabib said he wouldn’t rule out such a possibility.
– Khabib didn’t say Alexander would be in the league. He said he had some health issues and if he fixed them then maybe. If he’s healthy, if he’s coming back, if he’s behaving normally, then why not. I did not say that Alexander Emelianenko was unpleasant to me, but his trash speech … How he insulted some athletes! So we will start to organize something, there will be some kind of fighter, and he [Александр] will begin. It would be embarrassing for me if that happened in my league. If he doesn’t, what’s the problem? You asked about the fight with Datsik – no problem. We can organize it, we think now. There is nothing wrong with the personality, the main thing is that the guys behave correctly.
– What exactly should not Alexander Emelianenko say?
– Not only Alexander, but also other fighters. Embrace honor and dignity. Trash-talk is trash-talk, many fighters do it, but Alexander growled a little. With Arthur Huseynov this only they did not say to each other. It would be unpleasant for me, I also think of Khabib.
– Quote from Alexander: “They have only Dagestan fighters there …”
What did he name our league? Air? BUT! League dead. I think if we make an offer, Alexander will accept without any problem, but we see it’s not a dead league, Alexander sees that too. Probably, he wanted to hurt us in some way, so that we would arrange a fight for him. No problem – let it restore health.
– Alexander Emelianenko’s fee is called 10 million rubles, are you ready to pay that much?
– Not. I think that’s a lot. But we can negotiate – it’s his bar, we also have our own bar. We’ll talk, sit down, I think we’ll come to one somehow.
I’m not saying he’s not worth 10 million, he might be worth 20 million. I said the league wasn’t ready to pay him that much. We make our offer: if the fighter accepts, then he accepts. If no, then no.
Who could be his rival?
– I do not even know.
-Vladimir Daineko
— [смех] I think the most interesting thing is whether the fight with Kharitonov is organized. Daineko is a powerful guy, I don’t think Alexander will shoot with him. And with Kharitonov they are the same age. Here’s who and how will be ready. I would give preference to Kharitonov, because a person knows how to fight. We saw it in a fight in the United States, how he tied up the best drummer there (K-1 world champion Tyrone Spong. – “”).
– Is it possible for the league to make such a fight?
– Why not, Kharitonov fought in our league. And dos Santos fought with us. They have, I think, received more from us than Alexander receives.
– And against Datsik according to the rules of MMA?
Well, they are fighting right now. Let’s see how they fight.
Who is the highest paid fighter in the league?
— Shlemenko. At least as far as I know. How much they paid in America – these are questions for Rizvan, I don’t know the fees there.
– Does Khabib Nurmagomedov somehow participate in the compilation of the tournament card or does he already see the list of pairs and approve it?
– Yes. He constantly watches, constantly watches. I throw something at him there, he says something to me. And the main high-level fights – he participates. In the last two tournaments, he blamed me that there were no big names, that there was no zest. He says: “I understand that the guys are strong, good, but there are not enough names.” Now Uzair Abdurakov has been nominated, but they couldn’t come up with a big name against him. Now we’re going to try to get guys from our league to America more often to fight there. In September we will take a break to prepare Islam Makhachev, then we will try to bring the guys and do something.
– Today is August 20, there are 10 days left until September, is there a specific date for the tournament in memory of Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, which you have planned for September?
– Before that, I said that we are planning to go to Dubai and fully prepare Islam [Махачева]. Most likely, we will postpone this tournament to October. Usman, Islam – to this [победы в боях за титул, у Махачева — 22 октября, у Усмана Нурмагомедова — в Bellator 18 ноября] Abdulmanap and our team have walked all their lives. Now they need a month of our attention, and we don’t want to be distracted. It does not matter, we can move the tournament. Moreover, Khabib said that if we hold a tournament in memory of Abdulmanap, we have to do it out loud. Everyone should be there, but it turns out that none of his students can, no one will be there, because now everyone will help Usman and Islam prepare.
Source : MatchTV
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