Russian Roman Kopylov picked up the first UFC win after two losses in 2019 and 2021, despite the fighter’s new trainer being unable to attend the tournament. Kopylov signed a contract with the UFC as a Fight Nights champion (84 kg), but after that he lost to Karl Roberson and Albert Duraev. At a tournament in Paris, the 31-year-old Russian beat Alessio Di Chirico by knockout in the third round.
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– How does a professional fighter feel who hasn’t won for 3 and a half years?
“It was an unpleasant feeling. But there were different circumstances – I trained anywhere, something else. You fight in Russia, you think you are in the tops, but you enter the UFC, you understand that you need a good coach, a team to take care of you, prompt. The same analysis of the opponent – I think I was preparing for the first fights a bit carelessly. We jumped randomly, as they say. There was a kind of confusion, in the corner there were people who did not prepare me for fights, did not know how I trained. It seems that you know everything, that you can do everything, but there is no clear clue. And now my coach just couldn’t come due to visa issues, my passport was stuck at the embassy, hopefully this won’t happen again. But he was still in touch. In the locker room before going into battle, literally five minutes before the start, we talked, he instructed the seconds, told me what to do. And we did a good job, we spent a month and a half in Dagestan.
– Who’s the coach?
– Rasul Magomedaliev, thanks to him for taking me to his Universal Fighters team, for giving me his time and his nerves. He said I had to move for a minute and a half and then turn back on. He said that I was a stronger head, that the opponent was not a danger. These were his words. Good moral support.
Kopylov played on the main card of the first UFC tournament in the French capital. The fighter’s stats are currently 9 wins, 2 losses.
Source : MatchTV
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