Russia Part 2

Here are a few things I learned during my week in Russia that I want to pass along to you. The food is absolutely terrible. Without a doubt, the worst food I have ever had. It is unbelievably salty and just all around horrible. Eastern Russia is not a foreigner friendly place. Not that I ever recommend going to Russia but if you do, go to the Western part because Eastern Russia is all Russian. They are not very nice people either. Most importantly though, never fight a Russian in Russia.

The rules of the fight were explained to us as this: they were modified MMA rules that allowed 30 seconds on the ground to work before it was stood back up. Also, no elbows were allowed and no kicks of any sort to a grounded opponent. Those were the rules we were told coming into the night. Right before the fights we were told of a new rule that had just been added. There is no doubt in my mind that this new rule was thrown in because the Russian coaches and officials were in the room during our training session, which I was very suspicious of and I knew nothing good would come of it. The new rule allowed for knees to the head of a grounded opponent. This is something that I have never trained for. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want those allowed in all organizations but as of right now they aren’t allowed so I don’t train them. After our training session, however, they were thrown in. My guess is because they saw that all of our wrestling revolved around shooting in for the legs to take guys down rather than the upper body takedowns that Russians tend to utilize. Anyways, that new rule is thrown in; whatever, no big deal. My fight finally comes up and I go out there and dominate my opponent through the whole first round. I didn’t realize it until I reviewed the tape later that night but I was screwed out of a victory in the first round. So the fight goes to the 2nd round and I am dead tired. A combination of being sick the previous week and not being able to train at all and not realizing how tiring it was to take someone down only to have them let up by the ref a few seconds later only to have to take them down again. As the 2nd round starts we start throwing hands again and I really have no more energy to take him down so I kept falling back trying to draw him into my guard. He kept following me down but he would push me out under the ropes requiring a restart. This happened about 3 times. Then all of a sudden, completely out of nowhere, the ref brings us together and raises the other guy’s hand. I, or anyone else for that matter, have any idea why exactly he won. It was never explained to us.

After reviewing the tape, we quickly realized that 30 seconds on the ground didn’t necessarily mean 30 seconds on the ground. At one point, I took him down and he went for an armbar which I escaped and he transitioned into a kneebar which I escaped. That ended up with him in mount raining punches down on me. The ref didn’t stand us back up until I had gotten him out of mount. That was around 40-45 seconds on the ground according to the tape that I have of it. A little later in the round I slipped and he followed me down and fell straight into a triangle choke. I synched it up as tight as it would possibly go and I could see the end of the fight. He was still throwing some weak punches but his face was turning red. It was literally seconds away from being over. The ref also realized this and stood us up. This stand up was a full 10 seconds before the stand up was supposed to happen. I can’t tell you how furious that made me to see that on tape. I wasn’t too mad immediately after the fight, I was more confused than anything, but after watching the tape and really seeing all the shenanigans that went on and seeing that I was robbed of a victory I couldn’t help but to be very upset.

There was a lot of questionable officiating that went on that night but I guess that was to be expected. The event itself was very good though, I’m not going to lie. It was a nice big venue and everything was set up very nicely. It was a nice ring and they had pyrotechnics set up along the walk out ramp. The crowd was huge and there were photographers and TV cameras everywhere. It just sucks that that is how it had to end. It sucks that it couldn’t be fair fights all the way around so we could truly see who the better team was.

Fighters there are treated like celebrities though. Especially us since we were all foreigners. We were mugged for autographs and pictures. I was recognized everywhere I went because of the interviews and press conference I had done. I’m going to be honest though, I didn’t like all the attention. I don’t fight for the fame, I fight to fight. I don’t really want to be in the spotlight but I suppose that if this is really my career I should probably get used to it because it comes with the territory.

Russia really is a miserable country though. It was, hands down, the most miserable week of my life. I didn’t eat anything besides yogurt and fruit. That was eat the entire week, yogurt and fruit. People there are just generally not very friendly. I don’t know what it is. It might be that their country is so shitty and they are upset that they have no way out. I can’t say for sure. I can say though, that those people were miserable. The only really cool thing about the place that we went to, Khabarovsk is that across the Amur River we could see China. That was pretty cool. Other than that, nothing was good. Especially the hotel. We were put up on the 5th floor, the top floor, of the hotel and it had no elevator. Every single night there was techno music blaring on our floor until ridiculous hours in the morning. It also didn’t help that the Russian Mafia hookers had rooms all over the floor and they also added to the noise every night.

That is basically my experience in Russia. Sorry for such a negative post but I really can’t find much of anything to say good about the place. If anyone has any questions let me know. Be on the lookout for my next post which will catch you up on what I have been doing in Thailand all this time. I hope everyone is doing well and I will talk to you all later.