Last Saturday ACB 78 saw the last fight card under the 'Young Eagles' banner take place in Grozny. During that event fighters were competing for the right to continue to fight in the main ACB league. On that night, the highly talented prospect from Fight Club Berkut, Adlan Mamaev, scored a big win. He spoke to us about his last fight and more:
How did you first get into ACB?
- A couple years ago, in February 2016, when I was living at my brother's house in Moscow I got a call from ACB and they offered me the opportunity to participate in the Berkut trials. I came straight home, cut a few pounds and then travelled to the tournament. Thankfully everything went well, even though I didn't win, Ruslan Khamzaev offered me a couple of fights with the promotion. He didn't mention Young Eagles back then, but it was exactly that league. So after a month or two I made my professional debut.
I had long lay-offs in between the fights, so when Mairbek Khasiev said that only fighters from TOP-300 in Fightmatrix can compete in ACB, I had only two wins. I then fought in Turkey after that and got the win but it didn't help with the rankings that much. Then I got this fight against a top 300 ranked opponent. Of course I was very excited because this was my chance to go up the rankings.
What did you think about your opponent?
Six weeks before the fight I got a name - Alberd Zhapuev. I've watched some of his fights and I liked him. He's a great fighter but also very humble man. I didn't really want to fight him because we are both muslims. I don't want to fight muslims in future, but it's a sport, I can't pick my opponents.
Does that "0" in your record is something that you care about?
- Of course I don't want to lose but I don't really care about it. I'm just training hard for any fight like it's my last one, my title shot. It's not the best idea to sit here and worry about that "0" in my record.
Who would you like to fight in the main ACB league?
- I haven't really thought about that. I would like to fight someone with a big name. The thing is, I'm 24 and I started training MMA when I was 19. I didn't have any experience in Martial Arts at all so there is a lot of catching up for me to do and the quickest way to do that - is to fight top guys straight away. So I want to get a tough opponent to show what I'm capable of.
