Andrey Koreshkov’s first struggle again with Bellator in a 12 months and a half is a giant one as he takes on Lorenz Larkin to open Bellator x Rizin 2 on Saturday, July 29.
The 2 are each ranked within the prime ten of Bellator’s welterweight division and have competed earlier than, again in 2019, in a bout that was determined by a controversial cut up resolution.
Koreshkov and Larkin every dropped one another within the first two rounds, respectively, earlier than Koreshkov took down and managed Larkin for a lot of the third. Nevertheless the Russian was unable to do important injury whereas making an attempt to take care of management and because of this two judges gave Lorenz Larkin the choice.
When asking Andrey about that first struggle and if wrestling will even be a path for him within the rematch, his ideas are clear.
“If individuals re-watched our first struggle they might assume that possibly it might be a good suggestion to wrestle with him… however I studied him quite a bit and I do know him as a fighter and I feel that he has very, excellent takedown protection,” Koreshkov (26-4) advised Cageside Press not too long ago. “I watched totally different guys who would attempt to take him down and even when somebody was in a position to take him down it’s actually laborious to get any dividends from it. He’s excellent at utilizing the cage to get again up. I don’t assume that it’ll work to spend vitality to wrestle with him.”
“He prefers to struggle standing up, I want to struggle standing up as properly, and it makes an thrilling struggle… I feel it might make a struggle extra thrilling.”
Actually the followers in Saitama Tremendous Enviornment, famed for its legendary historical past of getting a few of the finest kickboxing fights on the planet happen there, will recognize a arise battle between two dynamic strikers.
Koreshkov acknowledges the historical past of fight sports activities in Japan, each kickboxing and MMA, particularly PRIDE FC, which he has fond recollections of.
“Combating in Japan was at all times considered one of my desires. This dream comes true. Visiting Japan can also be superb, I’ve by no means been to Japan earlier than. Additionally MMA has developed and developed quite a bit for the reason that PRIDE days. PRIDE created quite a lot of prime stage stars in fight sports activities. Combating in Saitama Tremendous Enviornment is sort of a dream come true.”
Talking of these PRIDE stars, his favourite fighters of all time come from that promotion.
“My favourite fighters throughout the PRIDE days have been Mirko Cro Cop and Wanderlei Silva as a result of these guys at all times present very thrilling fights, actual battles. Both it might be Wanderlei all coated in blood, his blood or his opponents, or Mirko being very exact, very technical in his putting.”
Koreshkov is aware of how you can placed on a present himself, with two of his final three knockouts coming by the use of spinning kick. He has a litany of different flashy finishes on his file, like his flying knee knockout of Justin Baesman in 2014. His reply when requested about how he obtained so expert at these methods was revealing concerning the mindset of him and his staff.
“I prepare below Alexander [Shlemenko’s] steering and we spend quite a lot of time training these strikes like spinning strikes and flying knees. The explanation why, is these strikes are very unorthodox. Not many individuals use them, particularly not too many use them efficiently, and that’s the reason it’s tough for our opponents to arrange for them. It’s laborious to search out individuals who use these strikes very well [for] coaching camps.”
It takes quite a lot of bodily ability and coordination to do these methods, and one factor that helped him develop that was dancing from a younger age, as his mother and father compelled him to take dance earlier than they might let him compete in fight sports activities.
“I feel that there have been some constructive issues that dancing from an early age helped me with, most significantly is coordination and stretching,” he stated, concerning how dance helped him turn into a greater fighter.
On this subsequent struggle Koreshkov will take sole possession of essentially the most fights in Bellator welterweight division’s historical past and a win would additionally give him essentially the most wins in divisional historical past. He isn’t apprehensive about such issues although; Andrey is a fighter’s fighter and he focuses solely on his struggle.
“I don’t pay an excessive amount of consideration to statistics… I by no means cared about that. For me it will be simply one other struggle.”
He additionally stated he won’t be able to see the sights in Japan, regardless of having at all times needed to go to, as he will likely be utterly targeted on getting ready for the struggle.
We requested Koreshkov about his life exterior of combating and he revealed himself to be a household man with a love of the outside.
“I’ve a household; I’ve a spouse and two fantastic youngsters so I prefer to spend time with them. Additionally combating, fishing is considered one of my hobbies that I actually take pleasure in that helps me chill out, going someplace exterior of town.”
Actually although, what drives him is clearly a want to struggle. This subsequent struggle is a giant one for Bellator’s fifth-ranked welterweight, however he declined to make a prediction of the way it will go.
“I actually hate to make any prediction within the fights as a result of they by no means [come true], however on this struggle I’ll attempt to use all my methods and my spinning kicks as properly. Nevertheless, I’m not going to dedicate an excessive amount of vitality to simply doing them as a result of I’m fairly certain that Lorenz Larkin is conscious of what I’m doing and he will likely be very properly ready for that. It will likely be laborious to catch him once more with the identical method. So I’m engaged on inventing one thing new, one thing that can give me a capability to catch him abruptly. I need to shock him on this struggle.”
If Andrey can defeat his rival, ninth-ranked Lorenz Larkin, at Bellator vs RIZIN 2 then he will likely be on a five-fight win streak and be subsequent in line for a title eliminator, with an eye fixed on maybe going through the champion, Yaroslav Amosov. This card is a giant one for Bellator and that solely creates extra alternative for the Russian striker to earn his path in direction of that belt.
Watch our full interview with former Bellator MMA welterweight champion Andrey Koreshkov above.
