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- Vadim, can you tell us about the nearest plans of M-1 Global?
- The next 2-3 months will be extremely full of events. Till the middle of June we will hold five - I'm not afraid of this word - grandiose tournaments! On April 22 there's a tournament in Nazran, arranged with the support of the local government, and dedicated to the 25th anniversary of Ingushetia. On May 19tg, together with Rostec and Rosoboronexport corporations, we will hold a truly spectacular tournament in Sochi. On May 26th our traditional tournament in Orenburg is set, which regularly takes place at the highest level with crowded venue. On June 1st, we will hold a tournament in St. Petersburg as part of the International Economic Forum program. And already on June 15 - a major tournament in Harbin is scheduled, during the program of the Russian-Chinese Expo. Both in St. Petersburg and in China, we are included in the official program, so we participate in truly large-scale events.
- For sure fans are interested in fighters whose performances will decorate these tournaments. Can you reveal at least some secrets?
- At these tournaments we will really surprise the audience. Today, there are a lot of negotiations ongoing, including onese with the athletes, who were among the TOP-20 of the best fighters in the World. Also, in addition there will be fights involving new athletes. Of course, we are intended to make the fights which fans have been waiting for a long time. This is Bukhinger-Idrisov's rematch and, of course, probably the most anticipated fight in the Russian MMA - Shlemenko vs Emeev.
- It so happened that the fight between Alexander Shlemenko and Ramazan Emeev had already been postponed twice. What can prevent this fight from being canceled for the third time?
- The desire of the athletes themselves can only play role here. Everything has been done at our side. Alexander Shlemenko is ready for this fight. The word is left from Ramazan Emeev. This fight is interesting to the audience, and we will try to make it. People are starting to understand more and more about MMA, and we are making the fights that our fans want to happen. This applies not only to Shlemenko and Emeev. We have a lot of fighters which draw the fans' attention. These are: undefeated M-1 welterweight champion Alexey Kunchenko, top lightweight Artiom Damkovsky, Damir Ismagulov, Sergey Romanov and many others. We try to sign contracts only with those fighters who show spectacular fights. Look at the last tournament in Moscow. Of the 11 fights at least did you notice a single boring fight? No! Even in undercard we have fighters which deliver bright fights and early finishes. This is the hallmark of our promotion. We do not hold uninteresting tournaments and boring fights.
- Many promotions nowadays use to sign fighters who were fired from UFC. Why are not you participating in this challenge?
- Not certainly in that way. If the fighter is really interesting to the Russian public and famous, then we will sign him. Otherwise, I believe that it is wrong to sign, so to speak, the written-off fighters. This will not add credibility and weight to the organization in the World. We have another way. We grow stars ourselves, which UFC is chasing. This is more difficult, but for this M-1 is respected by the West. Look, those fighters who leave for UFC from the M-1, leave there because they've been going through a serious school, as we do not feed them with "cans". We do not make easy fights for anybody. Marcin Tybura, Rashid Magomedov, Mairbek Taisumov, Alexey Oleinik, Islam Makhachev, Alexander Volkov, etc. These are all our former fighters. They were not known someday ago, but now they are all on excellent terms in their careers. Fighters of the other promoters who moved in UFC, are often fired after a while, because here in Russia they did not face tough opposition.
- How do you fight the departure of the fighters to the West?
- Here I would argue with you. So it was before. Now, many fighters, on the contrary, want to perform in M-1 with great pleasure, because it is no less prestigious than performing in the same Bellator, where there is already no sports component that was before, and the emphasis is on the show. An example of this is Alexander Shlemenko, Sergei Kharitonov and others. These soldiers gladly go to us and agree to fight here, because the opposition in M-1 is not weaker. Of course, in the matter of the departure of the fighters to the West, the money plays a great role. But there are fighters who understand that it is thanks to the M-1 that they got famous, that we gave them the road to a big sport and therefore they do not rush to leave anywhere.
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