Vladimir showed excellent form, simply declassing his opponent.
On Friday, September 15 in Elista, AMC Fight Nights middleweight champion Vladimir Mineev will fight under kickboxing rules with former Bellator champion Rafael Carvalho. The Russian will have to return to martial arts after a long break, and his capabilities are a mystery to many. However, this is not the first time for the fighter to return to the ring or the octagon. After the first battle with Magomed Ismailov, Volzhanin did not fight for almost a year, but in the first fight he effectively defeated his opponent – he masterfully probed the liver with a blow, but generously did not finish off.
“Regalia means nothing”
Russian MMA fighter Vladimir Mineev gained many new fans following an incredible confrontation with Magomed Ismailov in October 2018. It was not possible to defeat the Bald Predator then; the fight ended in a draw, with which both sides did not agree. Maga returned to the Octagon in April and knocked out Vyacheslav Vasilevskiy at the ACA tournament. Volzhanin remained longer without official fights, but on September 6, 2019, at the Cup of the Governor of the Stavropol Territory in Georgievsk, he still got his chance.
Mineev’s opponent was the little-known Serb Milos Kostic in our country, whose record was impressive. In eight fights, the Balkan guest won seven times ahead of schedule, and his only defeat was due to disqualification for a prohibited hit. Vladimir, however, also had decent statistics – 11 wins with one defeat and one draw. Most experts considered the Russian to be the favorite, but the enemy did not agree with this.
“I respect my opponent, he is a very good fighter, but for me his credentials mean nothing. In battle, I always go to the end, to victory. I am familiar with Mineev’s story, I know that he is a world champion in kickboxing, but I am ready to go toe-to-toe with him. “I’ll try to inflict a lot of damage on him and I’m counting on my speed,” Kostic said ahead of the fight.
Regalia are indeed not always decisive, but in this particular case the Serb’s performance resembled empty bravado. Before the start of the fight, it was striking that his form was far from ideal – with proper weight cutting, he would have looked much more natural in the welterweight division. But, again, appearances can be deceiving. Milos had plenty of time in the octagon to convince skeptics of his superiority.
This is the end
From the first seconds, Kostic did not dare to go bone-for-bone, allowing his counterpart to easily seize the initiative. Vladimir first decided to work from a distance – a test front kick achieved the goal. The opponent decided to respond with fists, but his self-confident counterattack failed. But Volzhanin also got his first low kick – he used this weapon very successfully during the short time of the fight. Hints were heard from the audience – our fighter was offered to “deceive and beat.” And Mineev decided to take the advice – he showed that he would kick him, but instead he heartily hit the Serb in the face with his fist.
Vladimir Mineev / Photo: © Personal archive of Vladimir Mineev
To say that it was a beating is not entirely correct. Kostic periodically counterattacked, sometimes even quite successfully. Mostly he worked with his hands and mainly on the Russian’s head. But the strength of the attacks was not such that Mineev collapsed onto the flooring. Volzhanin felt quite comfortable with such a development of the plot – he held other people’s blows, and inflicted his own more often than his opponent. He was especially successful in “drying” his opponent’s left thigh with low kicks.
When the audience began chanting “Vova!”, Mineev decided to take more decisive action. He grabbed the Serb by the beaten leg and easily dropped him onto the flooring. Volzhanin himself remained on his feet and for a split second tried to figure out where to hit. As a result, he decided to attack with his hand in the abdominal area and, apparently, was able to effectively probe the liver. It’s not to say that Vladimir put in a lot of effort, but his opponent simply screamed in pain.
The referee did not react immediately, which means our fighter had a legal opportunity to finish off Kostic. But he did not do this, but pointedly stepped aside. The judge, seeing how one of the participants in the fight was rolling on the canvas, suffering from pain, hastened to admit that this was the end, although the first round barely crossed the equator. Mineev returned on a victorious note and since then has exclusively won in fights under MMA rules. It remains to wish Vladimir victory in the upcoming kickboxing match.
2023-09-15 18:53:10
#Magnificent #return #Mineev #opponent #rolled #ring #screamed #pain
