From 2016 to 2018 three-time world champion in hand-to-hand combat Roman Kopylov won eight of eight professional MMA fightstook the Fight Nights belt and signed with the UFC.
From 2019 to 2021, Kopylov has lost two out of two fights.
On September 3, 2022, Kopylov knocked out Alessio Di Chirico and picked up the first UFC win and first in 3.5 years of his career. It was impossible not to talk about it.
– Alexander Emelianenko says that only his fists hurt after fights. And you?
– Legs. He kicked a lot with his left foot, now there is a bruise, he broke it slightly, it hurts. Everything else is fine.
– It seemed that the opponent in the second round felt it and started to stand in front of you at a medium distance, so it would be inconvenient to kick the head?
– Yes, they yelled at me to constantly kick, but I also noticed that he was approaching and that it is inconvenient for me to kick such a person in the head distance. I wanted to throw a high kick after hitting the body of the legs, but it was really going and it was a little awkward to transfer to the head.
– In the moment with a knockout, you threw a series of 8-9 punches. Was there at least one bundle you had planned, or is everything crashing on the machine?
Probably automatic. To do this, just in training, you need to hit combinations, on the paws – all the time, so that it flies off on its own. Just a little hit, you see the opponent missed, and he’s gone. We had to start doing this sooner – the coach would have been around, he would have said he should have hit in series earlier.
– How does a professional fighter feel who hasn’t won for 3 and a half years?
– Bad 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 preparation, in the corner there were people who did not prepare me for the fights, did not know how I trained, although I am always happy to see them. It seems that you know everything, that you can do everything, but there is no clear clue. And now my coach couldn’t come due to visa issues, my passport was stuck at the embassy, hopefully it 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, giving me time and nerves. He said I had to move for a minute and a half and then turn back on. He said that I was an order of magnitude stronger, that the opponent did not represent a danger. These were his words. Good moral support.
He generally said I shouldn’t have any problems in shock. He said, “You’re an order of magnitude stronger, don’t flirt and give up. Don’t miss a damn shot. There shouldn’t be any problems.” .
– It seemed that in the second round you started to give up the initiative and almost slipped in the previous fights when you waited and did nothing during the fight?
Yes, I got a little lost there. It was still hot in the lobby, as if the air conditioners were only on in the locker rooms. And he just picked up the pace – he heard that they were shouting to him “go, go” … I think I made a mistake that I started to take a step back, it was better to meet, take block everything. I wanted him to exhaust himself a bit, and it happened: he took the second round with a slight advantage, but in the third he couldn’t do anything in that minute (Di Chirico was knocked out at 1: 09 of the third round – “”).
– You have a noticeable damage on the bridge of the nose, do you understand when this shot was missed?
– Yes, there were a few knocks, but they were insignificant, they did not shock. On the bridge of his nose, he seemed to catch it with his knee, jumped up. And even when my head tilts back in the video, there was no shock.
– When you have two fights in 3.5 years and both lost, does that feel like depression or were there good days at that time?
– Yes, there were many good days, my family makes me happy, my parents are alive, everything went well, but the victory was missed a lot.
And now I’m happier not for my victory, but for the fact that I didn’t let down the people who believed in me all this time, that I made them happy.
– Do you think in technology they increased in anything specific compared to 2018?
– I think the skills are all as they were, as they are. The most important thing is that we have found a club, a coach, and my Rat team is doing everything to ensure that I perform well. Of course, you have to test yourself with wrestlers, to fight. But I think I’m going to get better at wrestling: the guys in the gym carry me, wrestle. All of them are pretty dangerous, so I probably got better at the fight.
– Did you post a joint photo with Abdulrashid Sadulaev (double Olympic champion in freestyle wrestling. – “”), did you just take photos or did you manage to fight?
– When I went to Dagestan, we talked through mutual friends, now we are in contact with him. We didn’t manage to compete, but we played rugby on the same team and had dinner.
– The main stars of the gym where you trained are Vladimir Mineev and Shara Bullet. Did you spar with them?
– There are a lot of guys there, it’s going to be ugly to point the finger at someone. Armen Petrosyan was preparing for his fight, he managed to get up. We were at training camp with Vladimir, but we didn’t train, we stood in training. We stood with Shara for a round: good quick guy, he hits fast, his position is wonderful.
– Your category is now one of the most popular in Russia – who would you call the best Russian middleweight?
“I think champions are champions. I think Vladimir Mineev and Magomedrasul Gasanov are now the best Russian MMA guys.
– Two frivolous questions: during the first UFC in Russia, foreign fighters went to Red Square to be photographed. Did fighters from Russia go to be photographed at the Eiffel Tower during the first tournament in France?
– Yes of course. This is how we consider that he was not in Paris if he did not take a photo there. There was just a weight race, we had to move, so we took a walk.
– You have a rather unusual hairstyle for an MMA fighter from Siberia. And often they paid attention to it, was it such that nicknames appeared or in the hall asked for a haircut?
– Yes, here in France I glanced at myself, it seems, just because of the hairstyle. As a child, I always had curly hair, but then, while I was in the army here and there, I cut my hair short. And so that’s my strength – in curls.
Wasn’t there a Pushkin nickname?
– No, but they called Curly. But that’s not offensive, is it?
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.
