Issue 189

March 2020

The Russian welterweight on paying back his bullies and building a better future for today's youth.

You were bullied as a child. That led to your discovery of combat sports. What do you remember about that time of self-discovery and growth?

When I was a little kid, I was bullied a lot in my neighborhood because of my looks. I would describe my looks as being international. That was the cause of most of my bullying. I wanted to do combat sports from a very early in my childhood. I really enjoyed all of the old action movies. Partly because of that, I wanted to do some type of fighting. I think it was my parents' idea to take me to ballet dancing first. Once I started my training in combat sports I think right away all of the people that were bullying me stopped. By the time I turned 15, I was a pretty decent-level amateur fighter. I started to pay back the older guys who bullied me. Now I have paid all the debts. That’s about the end of that

What action movies inspired you most during that time as a young man?

I was a fan of most of the top action heroes of the time. I liked Jean-Claude van Damme, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Jet Li and Bruce Lee. I liked all of those guys. 

Do you see yourself as a real-life action hero now?

I wouldn’t consider myself to be a hero but when I come back (home) I see a lot of young guys who look at me, who may be shy, that want to take a picture with me or something, I am trying to use that celebrity status of mine the same way my mentor and coach Alexander Shlemenko does. I am trying to show, by my own example, I want to show the younger kids that it is possible to achieve any goals as long as you stay on the right path. If you are good to people, if you don’t consume alcohol or drugs, if you don’t smoke and those things. If I would be able to help even a few kids to live this healthy way of life, I would be happy with that. That is one of my goals as well. 

Do you see yourself being a coach, a mentor of the youth of your country in the future? 

As a matter of fact, I am doing it now. My school is called Storm School back in Omsk, Russia. When I am preparing for my fight I cannot devote that much time to it but when I am not preparing for a fight I work as a trainer and a coach a lot. I work with groups of adults and teenagers I am working with kids who have trained with us since they were nine or ten years old. Now, they are fourteen or fifteen. Now they have a certain level and skill set. So, I am already doing that. I am working as a coach to quite a bit of kids.