November 25, 2007

They met three years ago. In a gym where Olga worked as a fitness trainer. The World Ultimate Fighting Champion Alexander Emelianenko came here to get prepared for his next fight.

'I noticed him when Sasha entered the gym', Olga Emelianenko recalls, 'he was difficult not to see: about two metres high, a real Russian bogatyr with a lool as kind as a child's. We had a training and the next day he asked me out for a party. But I didn't come. I couldn't. But we met a week after and never parted since then.

— Do you remember how you felt during the first Alexander's fight you were present at?

— His first fight I watched was in the Netherlands. I was very nervous, my temperature went up to 38°. His brothers sat near and tried to comfort me. But I couldn't feel calm, I was stretched bar-taut and only when my darling won I burst out crying. Unlike other athletes' wives I can't sit in the front rows. I can't, I feel scary. I cower somewhere in the gallery or store room and wait silently. I keep my fingers crossed. I try not to draw attention to myself. Only after the fight when my darling comes out and there's no one around the true life begins. I take him home and cure his wounds. With kisses.

– Alexander, is it true that there are no rules at all, that you can punch anywhere?

— No, it's not actually so. In fact elbow, head and groin kicks are prohibited. In many versions you can't kick your adversary when he's down. When there are two professionals in the ring who possess the basic wrestling, boxing, kickboxing technique than they do not just beat themselves up, but there's a struggle of two schools; it's more a chess game in the ring, who tricks whom.

— LIME is a family magazine. Can you explain our readers what's the difference between jujitsu and karate, karate and combat sambo?

— Jujitsu is wrestling. Karate is kicks with legs and arms but now throws. Sambo is a mix including the kicking and wrestling technique. This is the most incomprehensible kind of sport for me. With the most random set of rules. In combat sambo there are cuffs, elbow and head kicks, groin kicks. The organizers are constantly changing the rules, from competition to competition. They say that it's a police sport, that all special services were trained in sambo, that it's the basics. That in the street during the apprehension all means are equally useful. And if somebody makes a fight of it you should just lay him out. With a groin kick if necessary.

— Did you or your friends have any injuries?

— Several times when guys were fighting and winning the combat their adversaries just kicked them in the groin during the last seconds. And they fell.

— So, the prize fund allows such risks?

— There's no prize fund actually. As in any amateur sport there's only a medal, diploma or cup.

— And what about Ultimate Fighting?

— Everything is very simple in Ultimate Fighting. There's only one champion. And all other fighters combat for their rating. Because after they gain the maximum rating points they can fight the champion. In the USA the Ultimate Fighting already has a higher rating than boxing. Half a year ago there was a fight wit Oscar De La Hoya and less than a million people watched it whereas the Ultimate Fighting gathers a five million audience. What's more it is shown on a rather expensive pay TV channel - PPV - where an hour costs around $30. The American television people have made a real show out of the fight preparation process. They take two teams of fighters and send them to different gyms for a couple of weeks. 10 men in one box and 10 in the other. It's a kind of American Idol. They are constantly followed by cameras, the cameramen shoot in an online mode how the athletes train, eat and rest. The fighters are gradually driven to the championship and then, at last, they are let to enter the ring. And the fight is the culmination of their lives. Such shows have an enormous rating. The spectators get interested and they are ready to pay.

— What does a fight start with for you?

— Long before the referee's hand cue I prepare myself for the adversary, I watch his fights, I study his technique. The main thing is not to get nervous, not to try to kick harder. The fighters we compete with are experienced but they belong to different schools. The Brazilian fighters have a good wrestling technique, Americans and Dutchmen have nice kicks.

— And Russian? Is there any relation between the Russian fighting manner and national character?

— Not at all. I started with wrestling, at the age of 16 I undertook boxing, so may people still don't get who I am - either a wrestler or a boxer. But what they do know is that I have the quickest hands in heavy weight.

— People say that a good fighter can win even before the fight starts. How true is it?

— May be an amateur fighter can but as for a professional - I really doubt. They are prepared for a fight, there's no drive and no emotions. We enter the ring to do our job. And I'm not scared if my adversary is bigger and weights more. I enter the ring and don't mind it at all. I know that I am the best.

— And is the feeling of pain suppressed during the fight?

— You should not be distracted by such trifles, to lose concentration. Your adversary is not going to wait till you come to yourself and get a grip on yourself. He will continue attacking. Quite on the contrary, you should concentrate after a hard punch. It is heavy weight, so any kick, especially if straps are used, can be the last one. It seems that your adversary is not going to kick but suddenly there's a punch aiming right in your head. And that's it. You can lose consciousness. Once I had a fight like that. I fought a Russian, Kharitonov. Missed his kick and flaked out for a split second. But automatically I braced up, regained my concentration and there's nothing he could do about me till the moment I fully came round. I knock him out and won.

Olga Emelianenko: Oh yes, it was the most terrifying fight I've seen. They were fighting so dreadfully! In general, all the fights are intense: with Kharitonov and the latest fight with Rene Rus in the Netherlands. For me all the fights are difficult. Sometimes when I watch them on TV I put the children to bed and tremble cowering under the rug. Sasha seems to be calm, so it's my part. But after the fight he calls immediately to say 'Honey, I've won!' It's such a happiness! Not because of his victory but because soon we'll be together. Ksusha is proud of her father, she says she can't disgrace herself because her father is the champion!

— And what sport did Ksusha choose?

— She practices karate. And also takes drawing lessons. Combines her art and sports studies for the harmony. Painting is just wonderful and karate is for self-defense.

— When is the situation in the family better, before or after the fight?

— We live in peace and happiness, there's no 'before the fight' and 'after the fight'. Before the fight Sasha leaves at 8 am and returns at 8 pm. And after the fight it's the same. That's why I really enjoy the weekends when my darling doesn't train. He's always with us during the weekends. We go the countryside so that the children could have a breath of fresh air. And if we can't then we go to Krestovski island. Before Polia was born we always used to go to the seaside for some ten days after the fights. And now during Polia's first year of life we can't go anywhere.

Olga likes everything about her husband: his severe tattoos and his talks of Vladimir Putin.

— Once Vladimir Putin came to see the Russia vs. America fight. We won and so we were invited to the Konstantinovski Palace for a dinner. He liked it. He's a judoist. And the Ultimate Fighting has just recently appeared. In Japan and the USA this kind of sport is very popular but in Russia no one even knew anything about us. The President said that everything cannot be settled in one day. So, later I did. Everything that's needed is time. I think that the Ultimate Fighting will grow popular in Russia.

— So, you drank tea of some stronger drinks?

— Those who preferred tea drank tea, others had strong drinks. Those who were hungry - and we came late, tired after the fights - could have their dinner, too. We were too exhausted for a banquet. We talked a bit, had some tea and went home.

— Sasha, where should a kick be directed to kill a person?

— Temple, chin, liver, midriff, nose if you kick from below and the bridge penetrates the brain.

— So, a man is a vulnerable being, it's not hard to do away with him?

— Frankly speaking, yes. But there were no lethal outcome cases during the Ultimate Fights.

— And can you see during the fight when your adversary loses consciousness?

— Yes. Somehow he just starts swaying. Loses his concentration. His arms drop or he just falls.

— Is it hard to finish off the adversary?

— Yes, but there's nothing I can do. I can't let him go. Because if my adversary had such an opportunity, he would finish me off, too. I can't relax. I have to fight till the referee says 'Stop'. Till the gong sounds and the referee raises your hand.

— How soon do the kick you missed affect you: two hours after the fight, a day perhaps?

— During one fight I broke my arm in two places and I didn't realize it. When I was kicking I didn't feel anything and only when my adversary fell and the fight was stopped I felt that there was something wrong with my arm. After the fight I had it X-rayed, that's when I got to know. During the competitions blood is saturated with adrenaline, sometimes you can't fall asleep for the whole night, it's drive, you know.

— And how do you manage with it?

— Well, it just passes away some time after. You just calm down gradually. I like fishing, gathering mushrooms, hunting. I really like hunting, everybody invites me but I can't find the time. I'm constantly training. Sometimes it's just not the right time, the other I am ill or have to go somewhere else. In particular in summer. We don't have our own summer residence, but we've got lots of friends and acquaintances, so we get into a car with Olia and children and after an hour or so we are already there. The children chirrup, our friends laugh and tell jokes. And you are just lying on the grass, forgetting about everything. You are just enjoying yourself, we charbroil meat or prepare pilaf - I'm not bad at that. We refresh ourselves and go home in good spirits. Then I do something in the house and go to bed. I never sit up late, I go to bed early, around 10 PM. That's it. I have to follow the regime.

— What is your best fight? What did it teach you?

— There's no such fight. All my adversaries were worthy and I picked up something from everybody. All my fights were tough and great. There are no weak athletes at the level of our fights. Everybody who competes in Pride is to have some background in their own kind of sport. I, for one, fought Pavel Nastula who is the Olympic Champion. He never lost a fight during his sports career. And I scotched him. I fought a boxer Sergei Kharitonov at the Russian Boxing Championship and knock him out. When I fought a Brazilian fighter Morales in 1996, who is 2,02 metres high, was never knocked down in his career, I knocked him out and broke my arm in two places. I fought a Dutchman Rene Rus, over two metres, too. In 20 seconds I knocked him out, rather severely, they tried to bring him to senses for some ten minutes.

— Did the fights change you?

— If I could see a parallel life without fights, I would compare. I know that fights make me better and finer. I become calmer, more confident. I know that today I just don't mind the situations in which I would have gone mad five years ago. I don't think much about the future, if I have to finish my sports career, I'll become a coach. It's easy for me. I know why I live. It's for my family, for my daughters.

Interview by Igor Evseev. Lime magazine. December 2007.