Alexander Shlemenko is one of the bright points of Bellator’s roster, providing a rather stark contrast from what a lot of modern MMA fighters do in the cage. Shlemenko brings an exciting, striking-based fight style to the ring with him and win, lose or draw he puts on a great show every time. To Shlemenko, who is coming off of some frustrations from his down times in Bellator, a fight being a fight is very important to him, and for that, we salute him.
“This type of ‘fighting,’ if you wish, is sport. I can call it that: ‘sport.’ It’s not fighting,” he said with a deadpan that would make Ivan Drago proud.
“A fight should be brutal; it should be a fight, a war. This is not fighting.
“This type of fighter, they’re slowly killing MMA,” Shlemenko continued. “They just kill the interest of people to mixed martial arts. People in the audience pay money to watch battles, to watch wars. Not to watch this type of ‘sport’ thing. I don’t like this style at all and if I’m doing my best for my fights, they will be remembered, even if it’s a spectacular loss.”