Champion Gritsutin, Undefeated Rudenko and Samuel, Sineshchuk’s Broken Leg: Yuzhniy Rubezh 9

Hello, friends! You are watching the weekly discussion of the main MMA news on the mma-tv.com portal. My name is Julia Mirei, and joining me is sports journalist and commentator Ruslan Gumilev. Hello, Ruslan!

Hello, Julia! Hello to all subscribers and viewers!

This past weekend, on February 21st, at the 'Yuzhniy Rubezh 9' tournament held in Krasnodar, the main event of the evening featured a fight between Valery Gritsutin and Milson Castro. Valery previously competed in our MMA Series, where he defeated Lucas Nascimento. And at the recent tournament, he also showed his class and, after five rounds, defended his champion belt for the second time. Ruslan, could you please tell us how it went? What interesting moments did Valery have in the fight?

The tournament as a whole looked just as it usually does at Southern Frontier events. The prelims were exciting, and there were both mishaps and some very tough moments, especially if we recall the jump by one of the fighters. And I wish him a speedy recovery right away. Friends, that looked brutal. But the main fight, of course, was what many people came for, as is usually the case— And by now, we've kind of gotten used to the fact that Valery Gritsutin, well, if he doesn't knock out Brazilians, he still beats them. In other words, he knows how to do it, and he does it impressively, skillfully, or, let's say, efficiently. He came out as the champion, and if I'm not mistaken, this was already his second title defense.

Yes.

"And, in fact, the question my colleagues and I had was the following. From the standpoint of being able to go five rounds, we more or less understood that he should be able to cover that distance as a champion. That’s fine, but what real position would his competitor, his opponent, be able to take? Because a lot was said in the pre-fight interviews. It was mentioned that he would put on pressure from the very first seconds. And still, the guy standing across from him was very experienced. But... Jumping ahead a bit, I’ll say that Gritsutin managed his energy very wisely. In the second round of the fight, again, if I remember correctly, he went for grappling and, to some extent, successfully managed to wear Castro out. And from that point on, any danger that Castro could have posed in the stand-up, including that, was gone. He was throwing strikes, he was landing front kicks that seemed more like ""get away from me"" moves. And basically, from there it was just a matter of technique—a task that Valery Kritsutin executed very well. A well-deserved victory, a unanimous decision—in principle, Castro didn't really cause any serious problems at all. But it was a spectacular fight."

Do you honestly think that it truly deserved to be the main event?

Well, let's put it this way: on a standard ten-point scale, for the average viewers watching at home, you could definitely give this experience a seven. For the experts, maybe even higher, because there were some good moments where Gritsutin, as I already mentioned, demonstrated tactical proficiency and how to minimize the potential threat from his opponent. So yes, you have a dangerous opponent in front of you, someone who can move well in the stand-up, hits fast, and is tall and lanky. What do you need to do? Securely tie him up to begin with, establish a good kind of arrhythmia, and then you can begin to act much more freely.

"I really like the word 'arrhythmia

Yeah, yeah, yeah, he likes that kind of thing.

Let's move on to the co-main event. David Samuel entered the octagon, a well-known Russian fighter and champion of the Nashe Delo and JFC Pride leagues. Regular MMA Series viewers will certainly recognize this guy. Lately, he has frequently been seen in Sergey Bobryshev’s corner and he consistently supports many other fighters as well. And this was his first time stepping into the Southern Frontier octagon. His opponent for this match was Aren Asatryan, hailing from Armenia. And the fight itself, at least from what I saw, was interesting and ended with a chokehold. David finished it. Ruslan, please comment on this fight— what did you think?

"Yes, indeed, we have seen Samuel quite often lately

Well, yes, of course, the guy is impressive. I only know him from the perspective of being in his corner, but every time I hear him speak, it’s clear right away that he’s an intellectual fighter. In other words, if you just follow his instructions, a fighter already has a significant part of success secured. Very few people can analyze fights so rationally and think on the fly like that. I'm happy for him too. Especially since he already has two titles. As Fedor Ryzhov says, all Russian leagues are pretty much the same. If you're going to move up, then move up to the UFC. Let's really wish this talented guy gets to the UFC as soon as possible. Let's discuss Vasily Rudenko's fight. Vasily Rudenko is the MMA Series champion and holds the bronze champion's belt. He is undefeated, with thirteen fights and thirteen wins. And at the recent tournament, he fought against Lucas Oliveira and once again won by early stoppage. Generally speaking, Vasily Rudenko has built a reputation for ensuring that every single fight ends in a knockout. And a truly spectacular knockout at that. What did you think of that last fight, Ruslan?

Well, here is a bit of a preamble about what exactly came before. I was actively following his opponent’s social media—the Brazilian fighter, Lucas Oliveira, who, to be honest, was really quite worried. He kept a sort of big daily diary, and most of the stories I saw were just about the food he was eating. Here he is in front of desserts that tempt him, but he’s staying in shape. Here he is entering the hotel, and he’s walking... ...to his room, but he doesn’t eat, he controls his weight, and then, in the end, the storytelling would finish with him leaving the hotel, heading straight to the arena, you know, where the fight will take place, and he says, 'I made weight, I’m ready for battle, but...' And then comes a very meaningful 'but.' I don’t want to keep going with more metaphors about how seriously Vasily Rudenko 'fed' him punches, but really... Lukas tried to do something, but he was taking hits from the very first seconds. It felt like those punches were like the very pastries he avoided, and like a shot of beast serum. He seemed to be getting angrier. It looked like he was about to turn it on and finally put up some resistance. But in reality, Vasily Rudenko acted very skillfully and with extreme precision. And personally speaking, not for a single second did I feel that this fight would last any longer than it actually did. In other words, it's clear that Rudenko is really on a completely different level right now. Right here, and right now. Because if we talk about Oliveira, well, he's also a seasoned fighter. Just look, he has 26 fights, 26 wins. Yes, he also has quite a few losses. But it would be wrong to think of him as simply being just a journeyman. Meaning, someone who comes, gets paid, and that's it—goodbye. He always, at least until now, was counting on something. In this particular fight, well, I hope that at least after the fight he finally ate those desserts.

I immediately remembered Paddy Pimblett and his social media, how right after losing he started eating and eating, and just three days later he was already so fat, my God. So, what conclusion do we draw from this? When it comes to gluttony, people...

Sugar, it's wonderful glucose, you know, providing a very pleasant dopamine hit that all fighters crave... You know perfectly well, when... Weight cutting is a truly terrible thing. And honestly, when you see fighters in the cafeteria for the very first time, it's not the chicken or those wonderful burgers that attract them, but absolutely everything sweet.

I honestly find it hard to understand how those guys who lose such a large amount of weight, more than ten kilograms, don't end up developing eating disorders, like bulimia and so on.

A question for Rinat Fakhretdinov, who once lost 20 kilograms. Right? And to the other guys who are such record holders.

Ruslan, you already mentioned Alexander Sineshchuk, who, while celebrating his victory, broke his leg—he decided to do a backflip off the cage and landed badly. I honestly don't even know how to comment on a situation like that. Of course, we wish him a speedy recovery, but things like this do happen sometimes. And, perhaps, this is almost the most striking news of the tournament. How did this even happen? And now, how is the poor guy doing? How does he feel?

I actually watched that moment later, just in the recording, because I was commentating on the main card, but I started checking well-known social networks, and there, even English-language outlets were already posting all of this. I thought, wow, that's terrible! It happened at this tournament, but he... Let’s put it this way, there are two reactions. The first one is, of course, horror—absolute horror. Specifically, the kind of fracture that happened. And I wish Alexander a speedy recovery—not just as a formality, because from a recovery standpoint, this will really require a lot of strength. It's even harder than giving up desserts before fights and going through weight cuts. As for his actions, well, listen, we've seen something like this before. Even more experienced and truly professional fighters have found themselves in this terrible and unpleasant situation. For example, Johnny Walker, who also celebrated, jumped, and ended up pulling or breaking something. In general, there have been enough such episodes in the UFC that, honestly, you could make a whole compilation. A bad compilation. That's why, I think the most genuine reaction, the most honest one, was from one of the cornermen—maybe even the coach—who came over, as you could see in the full video. Sasha jumps, and well, what happened happened. Then the coach comes up to him and says, yeah... It was something just like that, yeah, and he just walks away. He leaves with the towel, thinking to himself, why, oh why did you do that? No one can answer that question. Ladies and gentlemen, that is emotion, that is energy.

But on the other hand, you never know where you'll become famous. You won, you got your victory, everyone applauded and then forgot about it. But if you jump and break your leg, then everyone will remember you. And it's not even certain what such popularity will lead to.

Yulia, imagine, we've just discussed this, but if we hadn't even touched on that fight at all. And Alexander, who won—good job, handsome guy—did a flip, maybe even a sharp one, maybe he wouldn't have even landed it. Although... Try doing something like that yourself. Actually, no, it's better not to do it without preparation either. Don't do it. So really, you never know where you'll find luck and where you'll lose it. I'll say it again: I hope his recovery will be quick and thorough. And after this, if he tries something like that again, he'll definitely be much better prepared in terms of coordination.

Looking at the main card, which fight did you actually like the most?

Listen, honestly, I truly believe it was David Samuelyan's fight from start to finish. I'll just repeat myself and say that his media image, to a very significant degree, is striking, you know, and the fact that he's bright, that he has potential, and most importantly, what he shows in the cage is truly impressive as well. That's why his opponent was far from a nobody. A guy who, at the very least, was very, very competitive for a debut fight in the promotion. But in the end, he just swept through him like a hurricane, and that's awesome.

And today, on February 23rd, I congratulate you, I congratulate all our men, the guys who fight in the octagon, who commentate on the fights, who write about them and carry the spirit of sports, who motivate people to do sports, to protect the weak on the streets. Congratulations to you, men, on February 23rd.

Thank you very much, Yulia, from myself and from all the men. A big thank you to all of you, girls, women, mothers, and sisters. You give us so much warmth and many smiles. And from myself as well, I want to once again congratulate all the brave guys who are now defending our country in one way or another and are representing the interests of Russia.

Well, on this wonderful note, we wrap up our video discussion. Happy holiday! I will see you next week. Thank you very much, Ruslan. Have a great day, bye-bye.

Bye, everyone. Bye, Yulia.