Issue 020

December 2006

By Jakob Sverre Lovstad

Coming to the Eastern block

Having completed a visa application process that made me want to beat myself to death with a Norwegian salmon, we were finally on our way to St Petersburg. I say “we” because I’d managed to drag along my fiancé for a sort of “tourists by day / fighters by night” trip. As we arrived at the Pulkovo II International airport, it was like being in a stereotypical movie about the Cold War. It was cloudy, the buildings were the brown and gray cubes of the 70s and there were military guards standing around saying incomprehensible things into walkie-talkies.

Having been cleared in the passport control (a process that can take forever, but due to pure luck only took us 15 minutes), we met up with former Trondheim Fight Gym fighter Rinat Kamalov who got us into town. He and his wife, Zoya, were truly the reason we didn’t get utterly lost or ripped off while we were over there.

We had, through Rinat, rented a tiny apartment just 50 meters from the main street in St Petersburg, called Nevsky Prospekt. Our home for the week was typically Russian: bug ugly and in decay on the outside, yet renovated and clean on the inside. Either way it was a perfect headquarters for our vacation as you can get to just about anywhere from Nevskij Prospekt, and most things worth seeing are within walking distance of the street.

A city of opposites

If you end up going to St Petersburg to do nothing but train, then you are truly a one-dimensional person. This is an incredibly exciting place and just doing the “eat, sleep, train” routine is borderline insane. Personally, I really like having something to do between training sessions and quickly get bored otherwise, so going to this particular city was something I’d been looking forward to quite a while. 

St Petersburg is really a place of incredible opposites and contradictions. On one side of the street you may find a McDonald’s, while one the other side there’s a cathedral from the 17^th century. You’ll see old Ladas driving alongside brand new Mercedes. While some girls look like cheap prostitutes, others are dressed in high fashion. There may be a rave party going on in a strip club on the second floor while a band is playing Irish folk music on the street below. We even almost got run over by a guy on rollerblades sporting a gasmask. Things got weird pretty quickly in St Petersburg.

As for spending money, you’ll get away with things pretty cheap. I was amazed by how many roubles were still in my wallet after a few days of living large. They key, however, is to have a Russian guide. As a foreigner, if you buy tickets to museums, go to restaurants where they speak English, or do pretty much anything that Russians typically don’t, then you can expect to pay about 3-5 times as much for the privilege. In tourist places they officially have two prices listed: one for Russian citizens and one for foreigners. Don’t think you can haggle your way out of paying it either, its just the way it is. That being said, there are tons of amazing things to see and the food is generally great. 

Going to the Red Devil Sports Club

On Monday we headed off to find the Red Devil Sports club. Let me tell you that if you don’t have a Russian friend that knows people in the MMA scene over there, you can pretty much forget about finding the Red Devil Sports Club. It’s in a kind of backyard to an apartment building, sat next to a canal in an industrial zone of the city. The only indication that the club is there is a tiny sign over an archway that leads into the backyard in question. It took Rinat quite some work ahead of my visit to find out where it was located, and he lives over there.

The gym itself is a low building with two changing rooms, a small weight training facility and the main training room, which has a mat, a cage and some heavy bags. If you’re expecting a nice protein shake to sip as you’re getting a post-workout rubdown from resident masseuses Bambi and Lisa, then this gym isn’t for you. It’s basic and rough and you won’t see lots of people hanging around wearing Tapout shirts trying to look cool.

I have to admit I was really nervous going there the first day, as I had no idea what to expect. We got there a few minutes late because of rush hour, and I jumped into the middle of warm-ups as Rinat sorted things out with coach Igor. After the warm-ups I was immediately asked to spar in the cage with Magomedbag, who was at my weight and had an upcoming fight. Things were moving a little fast for me. Anyway, a few rounds later I had received my introduction to Russian MMA at Red Devil. It was all very surreal and I hadn’t quite grasped what was going on to be honest. It might have been that right hook in the last round that threw me off. 

Training

Having gotten past the initial shock, things started working a little more smoothly for me and I got an overview of how things were done at the club. Unlike a lot of gyms, they have no morning session. At most pro MMA gyms I’ve been to, some conditioning, strength training or technique work is done in the mornings, while evenings are usually about sparring and drills. Here they train only once per day, but the session is from 17.45 to 20.15. That’s right, they train for two and a half hours straight. Good thing I brought my water bottle.

The training setup is like this:

·     Monday: MMA sparring and working on various parts of the game when you’re not in the cage.

·     Tuesday: Drills, grappling sparring, technique practice, kickboxing, takedowns etc – generally covering all aspects of MMA.

·     Wednesday: Conditioning.

·     Thursday: Same as Tuesday.

·     Friday: Same as Monday.

I have to say the training experience was unlike any other I’ve had during my travels to gyms around the world. There were training drills with rubber bands, grappling while holding your breath (I thought I was going to faint), Sambo leglocks, MMA oriented judo and Sambo throws, a Russian kickboxing style and just a generally unique way of approaching fighting. I also liked the mental attitude. There was little arrogance and talking nonsense, and everyone seemed quite focused on what was going on. The atmosphere in the gym was friendly, but very down to business.

I didn’t understand a word being said though, so I was happy to have Rinat on hand to translate back and forth. The rest was said in the international language of armbars, takedowns and punches to the noggin.

The fighters

What would a gym be without it’s fighters? Well, there wouldn’t be much to write about really. Red Devil Sports Club is an example of a simple gym that does well because the people there are good at what they do. I truly believe that if you have a good training group, you can accomplish great things even if you’re training in a modest facility. Having the most amazing gym in the world won’t help if you don’t have the right people.

Now I suppose most of you are wondering what it was like sparring with Fedor. Unfortunately, the PRIDE FC guys (Fedor Emelianenko, Aleksander Emelianenko, Roman Zentsov and Amar Suloev along with their respective coaches) do not train with the actual Red Devil team in St Petersburg. They travel around together and are harder to get hold of. They might be in Holland, Kislodovsk, or Fedor’s home town – as these are elite level fighters, getting inside the group is not easy. 

The guys I trained with usually had around ten to twenty fights and good winning records. Notable fighters included:

·     Magomedbag Agaev – a 21-year-old fighter who had already amassed a 15-2-0 record. It was also fun to spar with someone my own size, as there aren’t many places to find experienced light heavyweights. His background was in judo and he’d taken 2^nd place in the Russian championships, which is quite impressive given the popularity of judo over there.

·     Karen Grigoryan – a 25-year-old Armenian with a 12-1-1 record. He used to be a champion in his home country in Tae Kwon Do and Jiu-Jitsu, as well as doing freestyle wrestling. A really fast and explosive guy.

·     Aleksey Prokof’ev – this 26 year old used to be a boxer, but has changed to MMA and has amassed a 8-4 record so far. An intense dude.

·     Denis Komkin – quite a big, muscled up guy. 24 years old with a background in judo. He’s got a 13-5-0 record and is originally from Magadan in Eastern Russia.

·     Sergey Golyaev – I already knew about this guy as he’d fought my buddy Joachim “Hellboy” Hansen. He is only 23 years old, but has already had 20 fights. His background is in kickboxing.

They also had Anna Terent’eva training Sambo and Judo at the club. She’s been a world champion in powerlifting twice as well as winning the European championship three times. Too bad she doesn’t want to go on to full MMA. 

The coach and fighting style

The team coach is 43-year-old Igor Akishin, and he’s been training the Red Devil team for six years. His background is judo, but you should understand that the Russian judo is a lot different from what we’re used to. First of all, Sambo and judo in Russia is often almost the same thing. Practitioners of both sports train and compete in the same tournaments. So Igor (and his students) were doing throws from both sports with Sambo leglocks alongside armbars and chokes.

Their style of fighting was definitely influenced by the relevant expertise they have in Russia. They have their base in boxing, Sambo and judo. This makes for a flavour of fighting that concentrates on aggressive standup, combined with strong throws and a solid top game in grappling. But it isn’t quite that simple though. The boxing and kickboxing style they use is not like what I’ve seen elsewhere, the Sambo/judo combination results in a different approach to takedowns than the freestyle wrestling base seen so often in the UFC, and the ground game almost completely ignores aspects like the guard, which is considered so essential to fighters trained in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I think Fedor himself summarized the attitude towards the guard position when he called it “the punching position”.

Overall impressions and advice

After the first day of chaos, I really started getting along well with the Red Devil guys. When I left, coach Igor even gave me his own Red Devil tracksuit which I’m proudly wearing as I’m writing this article. I really enjoyed learning new training methods as well as being able to give something back in terms of techniques and advice. I always enjoy these trips the most when there is an exchange of knowledge that helps both parties with their game.

Regarding getting inside the gym, you really need someone to translate for you if you don’t speak Russian. The only person in the gym that spoke English was their promoter, Aleksey Zhernakov, but if he’s not around you won’t get far with trying to explain what you’re there for. Also, getting around St Petersburg without someone who’s familiar with the place is really hard. You have buses, trolley-buses, minibuses, subways, boats, trams, taxis and bike-taxis. Figuring out how to combine them to get where you want is an exercise in futility for a foreigner who can’t even read Cyrillic. 

As well as all this, you have to remember that Russia is full of bureaucracy. You need to start applying for a visa well in advance of your trip and then get it confirmed within three days after arriving there (this can be done at most tourist and travel agencies). And you should also remember that there is quite some crime, so keep your wallet somewhere safe on your person at all times.

It might sound like you should just give this up. That’s not what I’m saying at all. I’m just saying there’s a reason I’m probably one of the only non-Russians to go train with the Red Devil team in St Petersburg. However, if you can sort out the logistics, you’ll have an awesome time. There’s so much to experience and a short article like this really doesn’t do our trip justice. You’ll have to check the place out for yourself, and it’ll give you a more interesting story to tell than if you go to a place like Gran Canaria and sit all day on a beach.

What: Red Devil Sports Club

Where: St Petersburg, Russia

Who: Coach Igor Akishin and his Red Devil fighters

How much: About 2000 roubles per week (which means about 60 Euros, unless you can cut a deal with Igor)

Finding the club:

The address for the club is “Naberezhnaja Obvodnogo kanala 203” and you get there by taking the subway to the Baltiyskaya station and either walking for 15 minutes up the canal (watch for the Red Devil sign on the right side) or taking one of the small minivan buses that transport people all over the city for a tiny fee. I just saved you endless frustration in trying to find the place on your own. You can thank me in person next time you see me fighting in an event near you.