Akop Stepanyan is scheduled to fight on September 8th at ACB 93. His opponent is a young fighter from "Berkut" gym - Muhammad Sulumov. Akop has spoken about his upcoming fight.
- You are fighting very young guy, give us your thoughts on that?
Yes, he's young and he doesn't have much experience. I was a little bit surprised to get such an opponent but the matchmakers and the league itself has their own reasons for it - they want to test me and give a young guy the chance to prove himself. It's a big responsibility but I know how to deal with that. I'll just get in there and do my job.
- You had a pretty long lay off after your cancelled fight at ACB 86, can you elaborate on that?
Yeah, I took some time after that incident, because I had some health problems. I wasn't feeling great and I made the weight only on the third try. It took 2-3 weeks for me to feel normal again. So I went to Armenia and had some rest, took care of my health, changed my diet. So it took me a while to start training again.
- How your preparation for this fight will be different from before?
There are not many changes in my preparation. The only thing is I'll be training in the south part of Russia, there's more sun and the food is better. Plus I'll take my recovery more seriously because it was a bad incident. I was training really hard, but it all fell apart. It was bad for me, for my opponent, my fans and for the league. So number one priority for now is to be healthy and in the great shape for my next fight. I have no doubts I'll make it. When it comes to my opponents - I'll show all of his weaknesses in the fight.
