Daria Zheleznyakova: “The first thing I told Alexander Volkov was, ‘I’m from Ciryl Gane’s gym.’”

Hello, friends! You are watching the weekly discussion on the mma-tv.com portal. My name is Julia Mirei, and my co-host is Artem Novopavlovsky.

Hi, Julia! I am also glad to welcome all of our viewers here today. And the main reason we have gathered right now is for the event at UFC Fight Night two seventy three, which is scheduled to take place on April nineteenth. There, the Canadian athlete Melissa Croden will be fighting in the octagon. But that's not the most important part of the news. The main thing is that her opponent will be Darya Zheleznyakova, who is with us today. Dasha, glad to see you.

Hello there to everyone.

What was the main focus in your current training in terms of development and style?

I have new coaches, a whole new team, and I also shifted my training location. Before this, I was training in France, in Paris, but now I am in Las Vegas. And I have a new team of coaches—they are Brazilians. We spend a lot of time working both on the ground and standing, meaning we focus a lot on wrestling. Overall, I try to improve my technique, especially my wrestling skills.

Melissa will be trying to redeem herself after her loss in the previous round. Are you one of those athletes who studies their opponents' videos before a fight? If so, what particular things have you noticed and how are you planning to respond to them?

"Actually, I prefer when my head coach watches the fights first, gives his comments, and then I watch some of the matches myself or he recommends them to me. But lately, I’ve realized that it’s better to conduct my own research on my opponents. My opponent is a striker by background, a Muay Thai fighter, which means she fights in a hand-and-leg style, mostly in a kicker’s manner, a traditional kicker-Muay Thai style. She also consistently shoots for the body and executes powerful takedowns by controlling the torso

Are you counting on this being a stand-up duel in principle, or do you have a solid plan B in case things go wrong—maybe to engage in grappling?

This is a fight, and anything can happen in there, because we can plan ahead, yes, and have a very good game plan, but if either of us gets the slightest chance to grapple, I think neither of us will pass it up. But I assume that most likely most of the fight will take place standing up. Considering that we are both tall opponents, it will be a bit unusual for me, because most of the opponents I've fought in the past were significantly shorter than me. She is, I think, even two centimeters taller than me. Still, I assume that we will be working mainly in the stand-up. There might be a couple of positions against the cage, but they probably won't last long. Well, we'll see.

And when you are getting ready to face her in the ring right now, do you find a sparring partner who possesses a fighting style that is very similar to hers? Or do you prefer to prepare with your coach in a way that is essentially the same for all of your opponents?

That is actually the ideal scenario, especially when you find athletes who are similar in both body type and style. It is actually quite simple to ask your training partner to mimic your opponent's specific style. That is normal, and overall, it is not a very difficult task. It's harder when it comes to body type and physical attributes. For example, if your opponent is strong, you can ask your partner to work in a more physical manner, or vice versa. For example, during my last training camp, I was working with a Brazilian partner, and since he's a guy, a man, he would sometimes go a bit easy on me in certain situations, because obviously, he's stronger than I am. We wanted to bring a girl from Brazil for this training camp—or rather, my current head coach suggested bringing a girl from Brazil. She has similar anthropometric measurements, but I thought it would be too expensive, so we decided to work with what we have, because honestly, it would be too costly.

I'm curious, who is currently on your coaching staff?

My coaching staff consists of Brazilians. They are Ronnie, Marcelo, and also Drew. The Porrada gym. Additionally, I also work with a striking coach. So, I have one coach just for striking and another coach for boxing.

Well, in a recent social media post of yours, I saw that group photo where I noticed Alexander Volkov. I'm curious, to what extent do Russian fighters actually stick together when they are living abroad? Is it more about support, or does everyone just focus on their own career?

It all depends on the fighters, but I believe that we should stick together and support each other. For example, when I was training in Thailand for a short period, I didn't notice any particularly active support among us Russian athletes. There were no Russian athletes in France. There were a few Russian speakers, but I had to communicate with people of other nationalities. Here, I met Alexander Volkov in person. He's a very nice guy, and we sometimes communicate and talk. It's actually pretty easy for me to talk with him. There is a certain mutual support.

How did your first meeting and conversation happen? How did you find common topics?

Our very first meeting was, I don't know, it was probably actually a pretty funny and memorable story. So, I was standing with our mutual coach, Ronny. Then... Alexander walks in, and I know him, but I thought he probably didn't know me. I just introduced myself, like, 'My name is Dasha,' and I decided to start with my trump card. I said I was from Ciryl Gane's gym. My name is Daria, hi. Just so he would understand. And he also reached out his hand, we shook hands, but his face didn't look happy, let's put it that way. I think he remembered the bitterness of defeat. And after that, we started talking more, and eventually found some kind of connection.

You have the same coach for you both?

Yes, now we are training in the same gym with the same coach.

Dasha, in one of your previous fights, your opponent behaved, to put it mildly, provocatively and confrontationally, even after her victory. How much can things like that really affect your focus and potentially throw you off balance?

Yes, that is absolutely true and correct, it was indeed Ailin Perez who was behind it. Even well before the match, and even during the face-to-face staredown, she already started to act out and make her presence known. No, she actually started her trash talk earlier on social media, where she posted a knockout video and tagged me. So I responded in kind, saying her striking isn't very good. Then at the face-off, she kept it up while I just said, 'Tomorrow there will be a war.'

Well, did any of her actions, specifically what she did immediately afterwards, personally affect you in any way at all?

I understand perfectly well that this is a show and it's a business. And, in fact, most athletes are just playing a role to attract a larger audience. Now, when it comes to the twerking, to be honest, I only just recently came across that video because I had not even watched it before. I had my own personal challenges that were incredibly difficult to handle, and I was extremely distressed about my loss. And of course, when I lost, I did not expect to lose at all. I was confident in my striking, but it turned out that I missed the timing. And in that moment, she just choked me out. She managed to catch me in an arm triangle. I felt like nothing'd happen, I could take it. I even started building a defense. And then, in just a split second, I realized that was it—my blood flow was already stopping, and I just tapped out automatically. And I was in shock, really shocked, it felt like an internal mourning. I was just upset, wondering what to do next, worried about my career. So, roughly speaking, the athlete was thinking about her future. Personally, I never thought that a show-woman, someone who puts on a show, could actually make it work. She gathers a large number of people and fans. But of course, after that, I was faced with a massive amount of hate, coming especially from our very own people. However, at the same time, I also received a lot of support from many others, including many people from Argentina.

So Dasha, tell me, how do you recover after a defeat? How do you pull yourself together and move forward to win again?

I didn't have any really long depressions after that fight. I was deeply troubled and very upset. I looked closely at the potential consequences, thinking deeply about what would happen next in my career, because losing is a really bad experience. I went to rest for a bit, took some time to recharge my energy, and then continued to work on my career as much as possible. I fully accepted the reality of that loss and tried my best not to dwell on it too much.

What does it mean to you to be a UFC fighter?

To actually be a real part of such an incredibly famous and cool league . It's a great honor for me. I'm very proud that I've made it this far. It's very important to me. It's a major milestone in my life. When I'm an old grandmother, I'll be proud of this and tell my children and grandchildren about it. It's cool. For me, first and foremost, it's about a certain social status. The fact that you've made it to this league. Specifically for Russians right now, it's tough to get into the UFC. And I firmly believe it's a tremendous responsibility.

Well, look, does this somehow show up in your training process? Or is it more like an expectation from others? Or maybe you just live your life and realize, damn, yeah, I'm a UFC fighter. Sometimes you just remember it. And it feels nicer inside.

It really shows, first of all, in the responsibility, and secondly, in the expectations during training, especially if you're in a gym where, for example... When I was training in Paris, where there are a certain number of UFC fighters, people are more lenient about it—they understand that you're a UFC fighter and you might have some weaknesses. Here, as a rule, a UFC fighter is seen as someone who can't make any mistakes at all. If you give up a position or let yourself get taken down, it's for people, it's really difficult, it's taken very seriously. People here think that if you're a UFC fighter, that's it—you have to be at the top, beat everyone in the gym, and it doesn't matter if you're a girl and weigh 20 kilos less, you should just be knocking everyone out with a spinning kick. Yes, that's definitely the case here. And in this regard, I liked the mentality at Factory gym when I was training there, because the attitude, specifically the mental approach to preparation, was a bit different. For example, I noticed that when I was training in St. Petersburg, the coaches would worry about me a little too much. But, for example, my previous coach had already been to the UFC many times, so to speak. He understands that it's just a job, there's nothing scary about it, he's been there a thousand times and will go a thousand and one more, and just like everyone goes home from the UFC, it's the same thing. So in this sense, the UFC is perceived much more easily.

What is your primary goal right now? Is it the path to the title, breaking into the top five, or building a long career to earn good money in the UFC?

Well, of course, I would definitely like to break into the top 5 rankings. I don't know how possible that is after this fight, but in general, of course, I would like to steadily grow and eventually reach the title.

Our episode will be dedicated to March 8th. And it seems to me that for a male fighter to become a top-tier contender, he needs to demonstrate great fighting skills and be able to speak decently to build up significant interest in himself. For a girl to get into the very top rankings... besides needing to fight well and speak well, she also has to be beautiful, It wouldn't hurt to have a traditional family, raise several kids, love animals, do meaningful charity work, always be kind to others, and know how to cook well, and so on. It really seems to me that there are a lot more expectations and pressures on women today. And maybe this isn't just about fighters, but in general about women in traditionally male fields, like big business or top management positions in companies. Do you feel that more is expected from female fighters than from men?

"Maybe. I don't want to bring up this topic, because I know how it will all end. Because, for the most part, women's fights are hated, people don't like them. And no matter what you say, you'll be in the wrong. And they'll say, ""Go to the kitchen."" It's, let's say, a behind-the-scenes story. It's always hard to be a mom, it takes a lot of time, and many women have to work as well. It's honestly a tough subject. But I think very few people actually appreciate it, and they don't understand. And if you bring up this topic, everyone immediately says, why are you fighting, stay at home, cook, and so on, why did you choose this, and so on."

And how do you feel, over time, from what you see around you, is the attention to women's fights and, in general, the development of the industry in this area increasing or declining?

More and more young women are getting into fighting, both in Russia and all across the globe. And I truly believe this will continue to grow, evolve, and keep developing. Of course, there are quite a few men who hate on women's fights, but that's their opinion, I think that... not a single female fighter should pay attention to someone else's opinion. If she likes it, she should do it—it's her life, and she shouldn't pay attention to the hate.

And do you find it interesting to watch women's fights? For example, during tournaments, do you follow them closely?

Yes, I like women's bouts and heavyweights, for example. I also prefer Khabib's weight class, where Petr Yan fights. That's it, those're my priorities.

I support your priorities. So, shall we wish something to the girls for March eighth?

To blossom and flourish, to be happy, and to find more rest. Wishing you all the most wonderful and amazing things.

"Well, for my own part, I truly want to wish that if any young girls are watching our video discussion right now, it means they have a passion for fights and a genuine interest in martial arts

I also want to join in the heartfelt congratulations and wish you, dear ladies, a happy March 8th. It is such a wonderful holiday. I truly believe that all men in our world do everything for women, and I sincerely hope it may always be that way. Today's insightful video discussion was with our guests Julia Mirei, Daria Zheleznyakova, and Artem Novopavlovsky. Thank you all very much for watching, and goodbye to everyone.