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Due to popular demand and huge hype surrounding Khamzat I decided to translate a new interview with Khamzat that's been posted 1 hour ago. So this is super fresh and super new. As always I give it to you first ahead of main stream MMA sites.
Tell me, how do you feel about all this noise and hype that surrounds you lately?
It feels normal brother, as always, I feel like a human being.
A special kind of human being if you listen to Dana White.
No, I feel like a norman human being.
What did you do after the fight? Did you celebrate in any way?
No, nothing special, we just gathered and ate a meal and talked.
I appreciated your green suit.
Haha, it's not me who picked that, it's my manager who chose that for me. So I just put it on to take some pictures.
Khamzat, I have to tell you, 17 seconds... you know people have gathered to watch it, waiting months for this fight. At 4 AM everyone gathered, prepared the snacks and it took only 17 seconds and everybody went home. Did you plan to end it all in the first round?
- I always plan to finish my opponent ahead of time, but of course I didn't know he would fall in 17 seconds. I hit him and he fell, turned out pretty good.
What gameplan did you have for this fight?
I had a plan to box him in the first round. We expected him to be prepared and be waiting for my takedowns, so we had to box him. We knew that we have better stand up than him and everybody keeps thinking that I'm a wrestler. My coach told me, you always have your wrestling to win you the fight, so you always have the option to take him down, but work a little bit on the feet.
So you wanted to show off your boxing to begin with?
Yes
Did you feel that you already beat him psychologically ahead of the fight?
Yes, I did. I saw it in his eyes inside the cage just ahead of the fight. When we stood face to face I saw fear in his eyes. I felt that he doesn't want to be there.
With all of your word ahead of the fight, you were trying to break him down mentally as I understand it?
Well I didn't want to say anything, but it was him who started to talk and I got turned up and started to talk back . If you want to talk I'll happily talk. If you are respectful towards me I'll also be respectful and will keep quiet.
Khamzat I saw that Cormier said that your hype-train will not stop and that he'll be the conductor of that train. How do you feel about all this hype from everbody, Cormier, Rogan, Helwani, Dana White, just everyone is hyping you and are amazed by you. Do those words please you or maybe you're indifferent towards it?
I don't care what they say. I do my work and I do it with an A grade. People will talk all kinds of stuff, good and bad, I pay no attention to that and keep moving forward.
Is there any man or athlete that you look up and you would be pleased if that person praised you?
I don't know brother. People are coming up and taking pictures with my. I had some guy that ran up to me with a pen in his shaking hands asking me to sign autographs. It's weird for me, I don't understand it. All humans are equal, I'm a human and see people around me as humans. If I would have seen Mohammed Ali I wouldn't run up to him like a retard asking for pictures and autographs. Sure I could take a picture, I'd like to take a picture with Tyson who I like a lot. If he agrees good, if not I'll just look at him and go away. He's a human just like me who worked hard to become who he is. Everyone who works hard can achieve success.
Khamzat, tell me, 6 month ago what were you thinking about. You probably trained in Sweden and fought in Brave FC. What thoughts did you have about your career at that time?
They didn't give me a fight in 8 month. I thought I would fight for the belt there, but that didn't happen. Their champion over there is some weird anchovy to be honest. So I thought maybe next year. My contract with them ended in August, but thank god they let me go without any fuss. After that I ended up in UFC. My plan was to fight in UFC next year, but everything went really fast.
Did you earn a living any other way? Did you have any kind of job on the side?
Yes, I think I told you last time we spoke. I worked as a bouncer. My friend has a security company and people work as security in different places.
Did you have to use any MMA stuff on the job?
No, people knew me in Stockholm so it was all good.
Let's go back to the fight. Did you have a personal talk with Dana after the fight?
He he congratulated me, he was happy about my win.
Was he the fan with the shaking hands?
Ha ha, not it wasn't him.
What did he tell you? Did he tell you that he'll give you a new fight in a month.
He said we'll see. He said it will be hard to find you an opponent and that Damian Maia probably won't want to fight you. They also say that the fans are not interested in me fighting with Damian.
I think even for you that's not interesting right now.
I don't care really. It would be great to fight someone from top - 10 and if they give me a title fight after that that would be cool. I hope I'll get to the title fight as fast as possible and beat someone up.
Let's discuss who you would like to fight. You have called out Usman, Covington, Burns, Masvidal, Wonderboy. If you have to pick someone of them, who would you like to fight?
I would like Jorge the most, because he has a big name and if I were to beat him I could get a title fight straight away after that. He recently fought for the title and then that other BMF belt.
Would you like to take the BMF belt from him?
No, brother, it's their belt. I don't need it, I need the real belt. Just translate BMF into Russian brother, I wouldn't want to wear a belt like that (obviously he thinks mother fucker is nothing to be proud of). I let them keep that belt, we are djigits brother, we're not gangsters.
All the experts on podcasts talk about they want to see you with a top 5 fighters. They say the last opponent wasn't on your level.
Well before he said that I wasn't on his level now it turns out that he wasn't on my level.
Yes, so they say they'd like to see you with a more experienced fighter. Are you ready to face someone like Masvidal?
Brother I'm ready for everybody. I said it after my first fight, I'm ready to fight everybody. I'm always ready and I'll fight anyone that they give me. I think they'll find me someone good.
But Dana White didn't mention any names?
Well, those names we spoke about from top-5, we talked about it, but we'll see what happens. But the guys from top-5 won't agree to fight me. They will try to duck and play games. They will probably talk about me only having 3 fights and not being a top fighter, they might try to play that card to avoid fighting me.
I think on the contrary that all the top guys will want to stop you now. They will want to steal your hype.
I hope that they'll want that.
I saw your photo with Usman after the fight. Did you say anything to each other? I don't think you became friends.
We met, he was with Ali (Ali is also Khamzat's manager) in the restaurant. We also sat there close by and they approached. Ali came in, but Usman stayed outside, maybe he thought that I would try to provoke something (Usman shook confirmed
?). So I felt weird about that so I went out and greeted him and shook his hand and asked him to join us and we spoke a bit.
You didn't say that you would SMESH him?
No, that's unnecessary to smesh him in the restaurant, I'll Smesh him in the cage. That's the place for fighting, but outside we all behave normally. But I told him that we'll see each other soon. If you still have the belt, we'll see each other soon.
What plans do you have? Will you keep preparing in Las Vegas?
No I'm going back to Sweden to prepare for next fight.
When you started your pro fighter who was your idol who you looked up to the most?
I watch a lot of boxing. In MMA I watched TJ Dillashaw, I tried imitating his technique but he is more skilled. In boxing i like GGG and Canelo. I watch a lot of boxing.
Thank you for interview. We wait for your next.
Thank you see you soon.
Tell me, how do you feel about all this noise and hype that surrounds you lately?
It feels normal brother, as always, I feel like a human being.
A special kind of human being if you listen to Dana White.
No, I feel like a norman human being.
What did you do after the fight? Did you celebrate in any way?
No, nothing special, we just gathered and ate a meal and talked.
I appreciated your green suit.
Haha, it's not me who picked that, it's my manager who chose that for me. So I just put it on to take some pictures.
Khamzat, I have to tell you, 17 seconds... you know people have gathered to watch it, waiting months for this fight. At 4 AM everyone gathered, prepared the snacks and it took only 17 seconds and everybody went home. Did you plan to end it all in the first round?
- I always plan to finish my opponent ahead of time, but of course I didn't know he would fall in 17 seconds. I hit him and he fell, turned out pretty good.
What gameplan did you have for this fight?
I had a plan to box him in the first round. We expected him to be prepared and be waiting for my takedowns, so we had to box him. We knew that we have better stand up than him and everybody keeps thinking that I'm a wrestler. My coach told me, you always have your wrestling to win you the fight, so you always have the option to take him down, but work a little bit on the feet.
So you wanted to show off your boxing to begin with?
Yes
Did you feel that you already beat him psychologically ahead of the fight?
Yes, I did. I saw it in his eyes inside the cage just ahead of the fight. When we stood face to face I saw fear in his eyes. I felt that he doesn't want to be there.
With all of your word ahead of the fight, you were trying to break him down mentally as I understand it?
Well I didn't want to say anything, but it was him who started to talk and I got turned up and started to talk back . If you want to talk I'll happily talk. If you are respectful towards me I'll also be respectful and will keep quiet.
Khamzat I saw that Cormier said that your hype-train will not stop and that he'll be the conductor of that train. How do you feel about all this hype from everbody, Cormier, Rogan, Helwani, Dana White, just everyone is hyping you and are amazed by you. Do those words please you or maybe you're indifferent towards it?
I don't care what they say. I do my work and I do it with an A grade. People will talk all kinds of stuff, good and bad, I pay no attention to that and keep moving forward.
Is there any man or athlete that you look up and you would be pleased if that person praised you?
I don't know brother. People are coming up and taking pictures with my. I had some guy that ran up to me with a pen in his shaking hands asking me to sign autographs. It's weird for me, I don't understand it. All humans are equal, I'm a human and see people around me as humans. If I would have seen Mohammed Ali I wouldn't run up to him like a retard asking for pictures and autographs. Sure I could take a picture, I'd like to take a picture with Tyson who I like a lot. If he agrees good, if not I'll just look at him and go away. He's a human just like me who worked hard to become who he is. Everyone who works hard can achieve success.
Khamzat, tell me, 6 month ago what were you thinking about. You probably trained in Sweden and fought in Brave FC. What thoughts did you have about your career at that time?
They didn't give me a fight in 8 month. I thought I would fight for the belt there, but that didn't happen. Their champion over there is some weird anchovy to be honest. So I thought maybe next year. My contract with them ended in August, but thank god they let me go without any fuss. After that I ended up in UFC. My plan was to fight in UFC next year, but everything went really fast.
Did you earn a living any other way? Did you have any kind of job on the side?
Yes, I think I told you last time we spoke. I worked as a bouncer. My friend has a security company and people work as security in different places.
Did you have to use any MMA stuff on the job?
No, people knew me in Stockholm so it was all good.
Let's go back to the fight. Did you have a personal talk with Dana after the fight?
He he congratulated me, he was happy about my win.
Was he the fan with the shaking hands?
Ha ha, not it wasn't him.
What did he tell you? Did he tell you that he'll give you a new fight in a month.
He said we'll see. He said it will be hard to find you an opponent and that Damian Maia probably won't want to fight you. They also say that the fans are not interested in me fighting with Damian.
I think even for you that's not interesting right now.
I don't care really. It would be great to fight someone from top - 10 and if they give me a title fight after that that would be cool. I hope I'll get to the title fight as fast as possible and beat someone up.
Let's discuss who you would like to fight. You have called out Usman, Covington, Burns, Masvidal, Wonderboy. If you have to pick someone of them, who would you like to fight?
I would like Jorge the most, because he has a big name and if I were to beat him I could get a title fight straight away after that. He recently fought for the title and then that other BMF belt.
Would you like to take the BMF belt from him?
No, brother, it's their belt. I don't need it, I need the real belt. Just translate BMF into Russian brother, I wouldn't want to wear a belt like that (obviously he thinks mother fucker is nothing to be proud of). I let them keep that belt, we are djigits brother, we're not gangsters.
All the experts on podcasts talk about they want to see you with a top 5 fighters. They say the last opponent wasn't on your level.
Well before he said that I wasn't on his level now it turns out that he wasn't on my level.
Yes, so they say they'd like to see you with a more experienced fighter. Are you ready to face someone like Masvidal?
Brother I'm ready for everybody. I said it after my first fight, I'm ready to fight everybody. I'm always ready and I'll fight anyone that they give me. I think they'll find me someone good.
But Dana White didn't mention any names?
Well, those names we spoke about from top-5, we talked about it, but we'll see what happens. But the guys from top-5 won't agree to fight me. They will try to duck and play games. They will probably talk about me only having 3 fights and not being a top fighter, they might try to play that card to avoid fighting me.
I think on the contrary that all the top guys will want to stop you now. They will want to steal your hype.
I hope that they'll want that.
I saw your photo with Usman after the fight. Did you say anything to each other? I don't think you became friends.
We met, he was with Ali (Ali is also Khamzat's manager) in the restaurant. We also sat there close by and they approached. Ali came in, but Usman stayed outside, maybe he thought that I would try to provoke something (Usman shook confirmed
?). So I felt weird about that so I went out and greeted him and shook his hand and asked him to join us and we spoke a bit.You didn't say that you would SMESH him?
No, that's unnecessary to smesh him in the restaurant, I'll Smesh him in the cage. That's the place for fighting, but outside we all behave normally. But I told him that we'll see each other soon. If you still have the belt, we'll see each other soon.
What plans do you have? Will you keep preparing in Las Vegas?
No I'm going back to Sweden to prepare for next fight.
When you started your pro fighter who was your idol who you looked up to the most?
I watch a lot of boxing. In MMA I watched TJ Dillashaw, I tried imitating his technique but he is more skilled. In boxing i like GGG and Canelo. I watch a lot of boxing.
Thank you for interview. We wait for your next.
Thank you see you soon.
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