Underground fights. Underground kings
Who recently visited an underground fight club, grossly violated it, not only talking about the club, but even showing his insides.
You can learn about what and how the members of the fight club in Moscow do from this report.
(Total 11 photos)
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1. 26-year-old office worker Yevgeny Nazarenko (left) organized an underground fight club. Twice a month, participants gather in a designated place and beat each other in the face. We don't learn to fight, we learn to suppress fear, says Nazarenko.
2. Before the fights, club members conduct a special exercise. Four people surround the fifth, yelling obscenities at him and putting pressure on him in every possible way. The point is for the fifth to feel fear and understand what to do with this fear. The exercise is very effective, even those who are just around begin to experience excitement. This is me about myself)))
5. If the nose is broken or the eyebrow is cut a little, other members of the club will provide an ambulance, there is a first aid kit. There is no doctor in the club.
7. On this day, a girl participated in the battles for the first time. 21-year-old Yana dressed as a guy and came to the gathering place. The fact that there was a woman in the club was already found out in the hall. They wanted to kick Yana out, but after learning that she was engaged in boxing, they left.
8. Technically, she looked more confident than her opponent, but she lost the fight - she missed a hard straight, she bled. Yana says that in similar women's clubs, girls pull each other by the hair and then hate. She doesn't like it.
I am quite normal about this sport (well, or not a sport). These are not gladiator slaves, they voluntarily decided to do this. Yes, they are all there for the sake of money and earnings, they create a show for us. Everyone "goes crazy in his own way" and it's not for me to teach him how to. Professional fights for athletes are a chance to earn good money on your favorite business.
Here's what they have to say about what they do...
Vasily Kurochkin 22
When my mother gave me in karate as a child, I took the sport lightly and skipped training. When something started to work out, and the fights were not easy for me, I got sick of the idea to connect my whole life with wrestling. Guys without fathers were engaged in the section, and in the hall we received a male upbringing. The coach talked to us like adults and talked a lot about how life works. My professional career started at the age of 18 when I started playing tournaments for money. Now I have 11 official fights, two of them are defeats.
The hardest thing to lose weight is before a fight. In a normal state, I weigh 92 kilograms, and the day before the competition I should be 77. If I do not reach this weight, I will receive a fine. To achieve these figures in a month and a half, I go on a diet. In the last days, I should get about 600 kilocalories: I eat three egg whites with skim milk, 100 grams of barley and chicken for lunch, vegetables, a glass of skim milk, skimmed cottage cheese for dinner. When I lived with my mother, it was hard, I had to leave for the whole day and return at night, so as not to pay attention to the filled refrigerator. Now it’s easier for me - I live with a girl, and she keeps a diet with me.
A week before the weigh-in, I start drinking. On the first day I drink eight liters of water to accustom the body to excrete fluid. I take a 0.75 liter shaker and empty it every hour. You get 12 shakers per day. In order not to stray, I take pictures of them on the phone. The last kilograms I drive in the bath. Usually two hours are enough for me to get rid of a couple of kilograms. One of the guys sits in the bath all day in plastic pants and a jacket and, sometimes, faints. On the day of the weigh-in, you won't recognize me. Then I have a day to recover: I lie under a drip, slowly drink water and start eating again.
When I went into professional sports, I knew what would happen, although I did not think how hard it would be. But this is my job, I like it, but I have to endure some difficult moments. The professional level of a fighter is what distinguishes him by how he can lose weight and how quickly he can recover later and mentally tune in to the fight.
The euphoria of victory lasts a day or two. If you start to star and skip training, the coach will quickly siege. It’s better not to think about defeat and go into the cage with the mindset to win. I never ask God for victories, but only for strength.
We have the concept of trash talk - this is when fighters bully each other before the fight. I used to love doing shows, shouting something, resting on the opponent's forehead or arms and pushing. The audience loves this. Blood and aggression add drive to combat. Recently, I have become calmer - I go out and do my job. But if they bully me, I will not be silent. I would not want to be like Conor McGregor: although he is the highest paid MMA fighter, he talks too much. I remember he once said that if Jesus could enter the ring, he would challenge him and defeat him.
Egor Golubtsov,29 years
My parents didn't want to take me to the karate section on the other side of the city, but when the circle opened right at school, they had no choice. I was drawn to combat sports, I watched films with Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, I wanted to be like them. My favorite movie is Mortal Kombat. I recorded it on videotape and watched it every day. Recently it was shown again, and now I understand that there is some kind of circus there - unrealistic tricks.
When the section at the school was closed, the guys and I worked out by inertia on our own: we went to the gym, worked out strokes in a clearing in the forest, because it was inconvenient in the yard - everyone was watching. But there was no coach, and the sport came to naught. I started making friends with girls, preparing for exams. Then student life began, and until the third year I did not return to fighting. But after a five-year break, I began to work hard, and since then I have not quit fighting.
For five years I worked as an engineer at a factory during the day, and in the evening I went to training, opened my own section. The first time I went to a professional fight was in 2011. My debut lasted ten seconds: I went out and immediately got in the head. Then he performed at small MMA tournaments, where there was neither a cage nor a ring. Since I worked in parallel, my rating was unimportant, victories and defeats were about the same. I could no longer sit at the factory for eight hours and die of boredom, I wanted to do what I loved. And a year and a half ago, I finally quit, signed a permanent contract and moved to do only sports. Apparently, I belong to the type of people who need to constantly experience stress and get adrenaline.
Losing weight is a lottery, you can lose it or you can't. You become angry, do not smile, do not react to jokes. At home you freak out because of the little things. Maximum I drove 12 kilograms. Before weighing, he did not sleep, lay in a semi-conscious state. The last time it seemed to me that a stove was lying on me, I wanted to send everything. Then you convince yourself to wait a bit, otherwise the fight will be canceled or points will be added to the opponent.
There is a saying: whoever did not drive weight does not know the taste of water. After weighing, you can drive one and a half shots into yourself, but you still feel like a piece of shit, because the water will begin to act only after a day. To make recovery go faster, you lie down under a dropper with minerals and amino acids. After that, you already turn pink and stop looking like a skinny junkie with sunken eyes.
A weight lifter is needed to gain a competitive advantage. Some people deal with it, some don't. The bigger you are, the easier it will be for you in combat. Now in the category of 77 kilograms there are guys who weigh a hundred. And the audience does not even notice that a big dude, who obviously weighs more than 77, enters the cage.
Because of the adrenaline during the fight, I feel pain differently. If in training during a painful hold I immediately knock to stop the fight, then in a real fight I endure. Once I won, and when the opponent gave me a submission, I already wanted to knock on the floor. But in my head flashed: "50 thousand for the victory, 50 thousand for the victory." I thought: okay, it doesn’t hurt so much, I’ll bear it some more. In the end, he just spent his strength, and I wriggled out and won.
After a fight, I write off my opponents and ask how their health is. During the fight, I don’t feel sorry for anyone, and then I sympathize if a person is injured. I lost by knockout and choke. It does not hurt. When knocked out, you boom - and woke up in the locker room. And when they give you a choke hold, you first endure, and then cartoons begin to appear, and you fall asleep. You wake up already from ammonia.
Evgeny Ignatiev,22
I went karate after my older brother. Since then I have been working with the same coach. From karate he switched to pankration, then to hand-to-hand combat, then to army hand-to-hand combat. I am a master of sports in four combat directions. Mixed martial arts is my favorite.
I get the strongest buzz when I go out into the cage and the stadium screams. I strive to win so that the audience likes it, so that the fan base grows and I am recognized on the street. People remember only spectacular fights. If in amateur sports you fight for regalia, then rating and money are of the main importance.
I lost my first professional fight. I was uncomfortable in the cage, around the audience, I was worried and fussed. If there is jitters, then it is hard to think. We must try to deceive and catch the opponent, and for this there must be a plan and composure.
I am not afraid of pain and I am ready to be in abrasions and bruises. I remember how after one fight I didn’t get out of bed and barely reached the toilet, I beat off my feet so much. The most unpleasant thing was when I was finished off in two rounds, the opponent sat on top and thrashed, then my head was all red.
My girlfriend watches all my fights and is not afraid. He does not pity me, because pity is the lot of the weak. But my mother is very worried and cannot look. When I need to lose weight, I lose 14 kilograms. I'm already used to dieting and drinking. Only terribly want sweets, especially sweets.
At the beginning of my career, I received little, 6-10 thousand rubles per fight. Now it is 20 times more. I studied engineering, but I always believed in sports. Of course, if I didn’t know how to do anything else, I would go to work at the plant as an engineer for 25 thousand rubles. And so I chose sports and always managed to close the session. I think that for a simple guy from a small town, a professional sports career is a success.
So, more about salaries.
0 - 100 dollars
On the request “received for the first fight”, you can find the story of Sergei Khandozhko, who himself paid 500 rubles for the first fight. The amount of the entry fee for the tournament.
5,000 rubles ($70) might be a reasonable fee for a not-so-famous early career fighter playing in a small tournament. Rasul Mirzaev voiced exactly this amount, talking about the fight in 2008. Artemy Sitenkov, who once defeated Conor McGregor, calls the smallest fee 45 euros. The victory over McGregor brought the Lithuanian 500 euros. Denis Smoldarev, speaking about the first fee, calls the figure $40.
100 - 1000 dollars
“In one fairly well-known promotion, they pay as much as the fighter agrees. If a guy from Kostroma or Voronezh agrees to marry 20,000 rubles, they will pay that much, ”says one of the Russian MMA fighters about the tournament, which can be seen in prime time on the federal channel.
The range from 100 to 1000 dollars will probably be the most heterogeneous in terms of composition of participants. $ 200 can be earned on a tournament, the video of which will not even appear on the Internet. $1,000 is a normal fee for an athlete on the main card of an M-1 or FightNights tournament.
A lot depends on the manager of the fighter, on the status and prospects of the athlete, in what role he enters the tournament: for example, he can be signed for a specific fight as an opponent for a more famous fighter, or they see him as a local star in the future, or he already is to her. There may be a situation in which a person generally holds the first fight in MMA, but he is known in the city, for example, due to his achievements in another sport (wrestling, kickboxing, etc.), or is generally known in a non-sporting area. Here you can talk about a fee greater than $ 1,000 even for a debut fight
1000 - 10,000 dollars
The main or preceding main fight of the Russian tournament with the participation of a famous athlete. Fights in the main draw of a good American promotion: Abubakar Nurmagomedov - $1,500 + $1,500 (guaranteed payment and payment in case of winning - Matchtv.ru), Islam Mamedov - $4,000 + $4,000 at WSOF 22.
With 2000 dollars in 2009, a promising fighter in M-1 could start.
A well-known Russian without the status of a star in the industry in the Russian DIA promotion can earn $ 5,000 - and this is considered almost the maximum amount in Russia for a promising athlete.
Today, for Russia and Europe, a fee in the region of $5,000 is considered quite worthy. For example, at the KSW tournament (a popular Polish promotion. - Matchtv.ru), 5,000 euros can be received by a rival of a local fighter in one of the main fights of the tournament.
At tournaments like Titan FC or Legacy (US promotions - Matchtv.ru), participants in the main battle of the evening can receive fees in the amount of 5000 + 5000 dollars.
In Asia, there may be many different payment options. Most promotions in Japan (with the exception of Rizin and WSOF-GC) tend to have fairly modest fees. In China, a local fighter can earn quite well, especially if he is popular and had experience in the same UFC.
In the UFC today, under a standard contract, a fighter for the first fight receives a fee of $10,000 + $10,000.
$10,000 - $100,000
For the Russian promotion, this will be an exceptional fee: according to unofficial information, one of the last performances of Alexander Emelianenko cost $ 50,000. 30 thousand dollars were paid to Alexey Oleinik at the Oplot tournament for the fight against Jeff Monson in 2013.
$50,000 (in addition to fight fees) will be paid to the winner of the M-1Global Middleweight Grand Prix in the summer of 2016, where Alexander Shlemenko will face the winner of the Emeev-Falcao pair in the final.
Most payouts in Western promotions will be between ten and a hundred thousand. 20+20 - fee for the second or third fight in the UFC. Until 2014, Bellator held tournaments based on the grand prix system, where, having won three fights in about two months, you could earn $100,000.
The UFC has a bonus system - for the best fight, knockout and reception of the evening, an athlete can receive $ 50,000.
You also need to take tax geography into account. UFC light heavyweight Nikita Krylov says that if you fight at a tournament in the USA or Canada, you can give 30-40% of the fee, in Sweden - 15%, but in Ireland you get the full amount.
In Russia, there will be no more than ten fighters, whose fees are measured in tens of thousands of dollars (if we talk about athletes performing in Russian promotions).
$100,000 - $1,000,000
A paycheck for a popular UFC fighter with a good win-loss ratio. It's hard to put it differently. Ali Bagautinov, even fighting for the title in his weight category (up to 56 kg), received $14,000. Wrestling legend Brock Lesnar received $250,000 in his first fight in the UFC. Boxer James Toney, who agreed to compete in MMA - half a million. Plus, fighters at this level can generally receive payouts from pay-per-view sales and special bonuses not publicly announced.
The Dutch manager Bas Boon, speaking about the fees of Fedor Emelianenko in Japan, calls the figure of $ 115,000, but does not specify whether this was the maximum amount.
Bellator has so far had only one tournament broadcast via the PPV system (pay-per-view, pay-TV service. - Matchtv.ru), so it is still premature to talk about the size of interest payments to the fighters of this promotion. Now the focus is on the media, the recognition of a fighter, often this means more than his level as an athlete. For example, the tournament where Kimbo Slice and Ken Shamrock fought against Hoyce Gracie showed a very good rating, and it is he who is taken into account when it comes to fees.
Over $1,000,000
Speaking at UFC 196, Conor McGregor became the first fighter of the organization with a million-dollar fee, officially presented to the public.
Earlier, Fedor Emelianenko received one and a half million for the fight against Dan Henderson in Strikeforce. At the same time, the contract with the UFC for top fighters implies a lot of conditions that allow you to earn much more than officially announced fees. Earlier it was said that the same Conor McGregor earned about $ 5 million for the fight against Jose Aldo.
The UFC has a very practical fee policy. If an athlete makes a lot of money, it means that he brings a lot of money to the organization through pay-per-view sales, high ratings on the FOX channel, and tickets to tournaments with his participation.
Now some media say that Conor McGregor became the first to earn a million dollars as an MMA fighter. This is not true. Other fighters (such as Anderson Silva, Georges St. Pierre, Ronda Rousey, John Jones, Kane Velasquez, Brock Lesnar, and others) have received and are receiving serious amounts.
sources
Broken faces, swollen lips, spots of chocolate flowers, plums and red currants on the faces of gloomy men leaving the arena... Fights without rules are no longer exotic. Television regularly regales the audience with clippings from the famous "octagon" and "circus performances" of wrestlers of the American Wrestling Federation. But true fights without rules are a spectacle for a few, and not everyone can afford access to them. Having met in Moscow with one of my friends, who once made a living by participating in illegal fights without rules in Rostov, I found out that he did not change himself in the capital. A friend agreed to take me to the "kitchen" of the capital's gladiator fights.Fight club
Late evening. Outskirts of Moscow. Our jeep drives up to the settlement of new "palace-type" buildings. The beam of headlights snatches out of the darkness an unfinished two-story cottage with several foreign cars at the huge iron gate. Loud voices, laughter and the clapping of open beer cans can be heard from the house. We pass through the garage into the house. Forty-watt light bulbs are barely enough to see faces.
On the ground floor, I run into a big guy in a bright red tracksuit, punching an imaginary punching bag. A little further away, two men in sports tights are exchanging warm-up blows. Eyes get used to the semi-darkness. In the corner of the room, on a wooden bench, a big man in purple wrestling tights, the kind worn by grappling and throwing experts, is meditating. On the contrary, his potential opponent in the same tights is kneading his shoulders. He warms up without taking his eyes off his meditating colleague. At the exit from the room, with his arms crossed on his chest and leaning his head against the door jamb, a shaven-headed man in a wrestling T-shirt and torn shorts is quietly talking to a guy in a kimono. All these people are the famous Moscow gladiators - underground fighters without rules.
We rise to the second floor, to a bright and spacious hall for fights. Smoky, smells of beer and fresh grilled chicken. In the corner of the room is a large round table; on it, on the pages of scattered porn magazines, appetizingly smelling, somehow broken hot chicken carcasses. Beer cans nearby. In the center of the room are some old worn sports mats - a gladiatorial arena. Along the walls, on low benches, spectators were chewing and sipping beer. A thick, even rumble of voices: jokes with mothers, teasing, laughter. Viewers are not like respectable bosses at all. Everywhere you look - wide shoulders, dressed in stretched T-shirts, bull necks with thick gold chains. Faces flushed with ingestion and excitement. Judging by the fragments of phrases, they themselves do not miss the opportunity to take part in fights without rules. So it is: I'm at the internal tournament of the Moscow Federation of Limitless Fights. And I'm going to see rookie fights.
Bet on a couple
Finally, to the roar of the assembled company, the first fighter appears on the carpet - a bully in a red tracksuit, whom I encountered on the first floor. He looks to be in his thirties. From under frowning eyebrows, he shoots a sharp look at the audience. The big man undresses to his swimming trunks (in fights without rules, participants leave a minimum of clothes on themselves so as not to stain it with blood), impatiently shifts from foot to foot in anticipation of the enemy's exit. The second fighter was not long in coming: the figure of one of those warming up in sparring appears in the doorway. Having undressed, he begins to slowly approach the first one and, having caught up with him, simply stands next to him. I'm starting to wonder. My bewilderment is aggravated by the calmness of the public. But the next few seconds make it all clear. From another door, a skinhead in a wrestling shirt, whom I met in the training hall below, enters the room, and his companion in a kimono appears after him. Both undressed and stood at the other end of the carpet, staring at the first couple. Clearly, it will be a two-on-two fight.
In domestic competitions, spectator gladiators also bet on their colleagues. But these amounts, of course, are much lower than what real viewers do. Fighters can bet no more than $300-700 on each other. It happens even less. That evening I was lucky: I watched the fight of the “twos”. The victory of each colleague in the workshop was estimated at an average of $500.
From the crowd of spectators there was a shout of "Come on!" The couples started getting together. Apparently, who will fight with whom in each of the "twos" was determined by the gladiators themselves in advance. Big man, who entered the arena in a wrestling T-shirt, chose a fighter similar in size to himself (before the fight he was dressed in red), and his colleague (the one in a kimono) chose a sparring player. The fight was unleashed by the “red”, who tried to strike his opponent with a direct blow to the head. He deftly avoided the blow, responding with the same unsuccessful attempt at the right hook, but did not avoid the next one - with a knee to the side. This test of combat for a few seconds smashed the opponents to the sides, but with even greater excitement, they again rushed at each other.
Another pair of gladiators, at first unsuccessfully trying to reach each other with their hands, attracted the attention of the audience with elements of Thai boxing - a hail of powerful kicks to the body. Having danced in this cockfight, they collided with the second fighting pair, aggravating the blow to the chest missed by the “red”, and he almost lost his balance. Angered by the missed blow and the collision, he rushed at his opponent with a roar and, grabbing him by the legs, threw him on his back with a jerk, completing the reception with a lightning-fast blow to the nose: the splashed first blood simply blew up the audience - it seems that they themselves were already ready to rush into battle. In the meantime, knocked down on the mats, dodging the second blow, with a left hook he demolished the enemy who had landed on top and, as if nothing had happened, jumped to his feet. Shaking his head, his rival stood up in a jump from a sitting position.
Masters of golden seams
Broken noses and broken arms in underground fights without rules are not uncommon at all, but probably the only rule. But often fights end for rivals with much more serious injuries that require surgical intervention. Self-respecting organizers of fighting sweepstakes keep in their staff one or two doctors who are present at each fight. The pay for these fast stitchers varies depending on the level at which the competition is held, ranging from $300 to $1,000 per month. But, frankly, such field doctors are just an element of window dressing, adding seriousness to a street fight transferred to the underground rings of elite nightclubs.
It is simply impossible to fight and get out of it without a single scratch on true fights without rules. And recently, the places of underground stadiums have been marked by one or two ambulances on duty near them. The services of a full-night medical team on wheels cost an average of $300 plus a bonus, the double privilege of being able to watch the fights with the rest of the spectators and also for free. Usually, the nightlife of the capital, specializing in the performance of gladiators, during the hours of the fights are closed for special services. Do we need to be members. And here the doctors are in favor. But only until the first serious injury.
If the victim needs hospitalization, he is taken to the nearest hospital, where they are registered as just picked up on the street, beaten, "obviously by a gang of hooligans." As a rule, these are hospitals where personal doctors of gladiators practice during "hot" times. One night delivery of the wounded to a medical institution leaves in the doctor's pocket from $ 250.
Show must go on
When in the tenth minute of the battle, having missed a direct kick, one of the fighters folded up and fell on the blood-splattered mats and three remained in the ring, who defeated the opponent, sweaty, with a bloody face, "red", breathing heavily, did not go far - squatted down in corner of the carpet. Tired of the second pair, by that time fighting on the ground and now and then exchanging blows to the head, tried to hold Greco-Roman wrestling techniques against each other. But these techniques turned out to be ineffective, and a direct blow to the nose inflicted on him by an opponent became fatal for the gladiator left alone. The victory was won. Today there were no special injuries, perhaps because the gladiators fought for their own, or perhaps because of the equality of partners. No special joyful congratulations and hugs. Leaving the carpet, the partners only slightly butted their swollen, brown-blooded eyebrows. Well, tomorrow the lot may bring them into battle against each other.
Meanwhile, wrestlers entered the arena to the general shouting and hooting. The performance continued.
Some experts argue that, in terms of relative profitability, fighting without rules is in the top ten business, leaving behind only the trade in weapons, drugs, oil, and prostitutes, but already ahead of the production of "singed" vodka and pirated book publishing. Therefore, as the unforgettable Freddie Mercury sang, the show must - and will - continue, like any show with a taste of human blood...
DMITRY NAZARKIN
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Four hundred dollars. We made it so that some people began to fight with us, others wanted to fight with us, and everyone around started talking about us. It cost us four hundred dollars,” Greg Apinyan sounds proud.
Apinyan is a 29-year-old resident of St. Petersburg and the organizer of the Strelka mixed martial arts championships. Everyone in St. Petersburg knows what an "arrow" is. There is the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island. You can also “score the arrow”, that is, call your opponent to a serious conversation. And now here is the championship.
The name is excellent, - states Apinyan. - My brother invented it.
In the two years of its existence, its fighting tournaments have gone from a $400 cabal to one of the leading players in the domestic market of mixed martial arts (MMA - from the English Mixed Martial Arts). Eight million views of Strelka's videos on YouTube, victory in the World Press Photo contest in the Best Sports Story nomination, which in 2011 went to the organizers of the championship for filming their tournaments, fights on the football lawn of the Petrovsky stadium, the home field of Zenit , a holy place for St. Petersburg residents - these are just some of the achievements of Apinyan and the company.
The secret of Strelka's success is that ordinary amateurs can take part in it, including those who have never been involved in combat at all. And second: Strelka is a street championship. Its participants fight in the open air, on sand, grass or on bare ground.
This is what sets us apart from traditional MMA tournaments,” says Apinyan. - Their format scares away many viewers: an octagon, people in a cage, blood, everything is scary and gloomy. And our championships are quite another matter. Sand, blue sky, sun. And the most ordinary people who sometimes show such fortitude that one can only be surprised.
At the first Strelka, held in the summer of 2011, a 40-year-old mustachioed man came out to fight. Compared to the others, he seemed like a grandfather. The man's name was Alexander Rese, he was an accountant. In the next ten minutes, the "grandfather" gave a real fight to an opponent half his age and eventually won. According to the rules, fights on Strelka do not have a time limit: they go on until one of the fighters gives up or until the referee stops the fight. The record fight in the history of the championship lasted 40 minutes without a break. Everything else is like in classic MMA. The fighters have rubbers on their hands, they are allowed to strike with their hands and feet and fight on the ground.
I worked with the M-1 company, filmed the fights of Fedi Emelianenko. Then he brought equipment and T-shirts of fighting firms to Russia, had a store. At first we thought: we will organize our own tournament in order to sell T-shirts better. But very quickly, the fighting pushed the store into the background, - says Apinyan.
Information about the first "Strelka" was distributed among the sections of mixed martial arts. Everyone was invited to participate. The St. Petersburg factory "Red Banner" was chosen as the place - it once supplied the country with women's stockings, but now it is going through hard times. We signed an agreement with the management of the factory on the lease of land in the yard for a period of one day. Friends brought twelve bags of sand, poured onto the ground and leveled. Ship ropes were pulled around the perimeter - it turned out to be a ring. Members of city auto and motorcycle clubs were invited as spectators - free of charge, Strelka began to take money for tickets later. They came and made a beautiful backdrop: expensive cars, roaring engines, girls in short shorts. It was a matter of small - to shoot everything on camera and put it on the Internet. All this, according to Apinyan, cost those notorious $400. Moreover, almost half of this amount was promised as a reward to the fighters.
Five people volunteered to fight. And then I said: there are six thousand rubles left, we can divide three thousand and have two fights. When these fights were over, people really turned on. A hat was thrown at the spectators and another six thousand were collected. There were also new ones who wanted to try themselves in battles.
In two years, under the auspices of Strelka, eleven mixed martial arts tournaments were held. The impudent Petersburgers were noticed and taken under the wing of the American company Tron, which specializes in organizing MMA tournaments. Apinyan does not disclose the amount for which the Americans bought the right to manage the fighting tournament in Russia. But, judging by his cheerful voice and Napoleonic plans, the deal was right. He continues to organize fights, but already as a hired employee of the Americans.
Today, Strelka offers franchises to the regions. A person in any city in Russia can use its name, its marketing resources, including a sophisticated Internet site, and host the championship. Two years of using the Strelka brand will cost him three million rubles. No applicants have yet been found. But at the same time, they plan to raise the price of the franchise even higher. Because, according to Apinyan, Strelka will continue to develop and become more famous:
There will be no more tournaments in St. Petersburg. We feel confident enough to storm Moscow. And then, if everything goes well, in two or three years we will enter the intercontinental development.
There are currently 838 people in line to take part in Strelka battles. This is enough for seven or eight tournaments. The fighters in the championship still do not earn a lot of money, the fees for the victory rarely exceed three or four thousand rubles. However, this does not bother men who want to try their hand at fighting without rules. They come from different areas, with different fighting skills. Once even a convict called from prison. He said: "I'm going out in four months, I want to fight."
Ali Baba and the robbers
At least a dozen mixed martial arts championships are held in Russia every week, in which amateurs can participate. Information about them is disseminated in social networks and on forums of Internet sites dedicated to martial arts, such as koicombat.org or mixfight.ru. The geography of these tournaments is extremely wide. This could be the Serednikovo estate near Moscow, the former estate of the Lermontov-Stolypins, where in 2011 competitions were held in the toughest version of the T-1 fights. Or urban sports complexes, as was the case in Makhachkala, Barnaul, Birobidzhan, Voronezh, Krasnodar and practically any other city in Russia with a population of over fifty thousand people.
It is not uncommon for fighters to be taken to restaurants and nightclubs, and then patrons enjoy fights in the snobbish manner of The Great Gatsby - sitting at tables with drinks and food. So it was, for example, in Kolomna near Moscow.
Taken together, this means that an impressive number of men, for whom fighting is not a profession, finish their work on Friday, say goodbye to colleagues until Monday, and go with their fists to earn extra money. Or, if they don’t offer money, prove to yourself and the world everything that men usually prove.
Alexander Anisimov is a 30-year-old employee of a road construction company in Vladimir. For his debut in mixed martial arts, he chose that version of them, which one authoritative sports publication called "cannibalistic" - T-1. The letter "T" means "total".
According to the rules of T-1, opponents perform in shoes with a hard sole. It is allowed to strike with the head, to finish off the opponent with his feet, if he does not give up. The organizers wanted the participants to fight with their bare hands, without gloves, but the fighters themselves were already opposed. “Not everyone was ready to overcome the psychological barrier, to fight with a bare fist,” says German Lvov, president of the T-1 league and popularizer of absolute fights. So in the end, the fighters were allowed to fight in mixfight rubbers.
One of the participants in the weight category Alexander Anisimov dropped out of the tournament, having first received a forehead blow on the nose (the nose broke), and then, already lying on the floor, with a foot in the head. Alexander was more fortunate. He reached the finals and only there, falling for a painful hold, lost.
At different times I was engaged in hand-to-hand combat and wrestling, - he says. - And then became interested in weightlifting.
When asked what made him leave his wife and one and a half year old son in Vladimir and go to a foreign land to fight, he says: “It became interesting.” However, he immediately adds: "The interest was satisfied." And, at least in the near future, there will be no more fights in his life.
Interest is what attracts many to the amateur mixfight. However, participation in fights can also be a way to earn money. According to the Federation of Pankration of Russia (this organization seeks to give mixed martial arts an Olympic status), the fee for first place in non-professional tournaments ranges from 30 to 50 thousand rubles across the country. The participants themselves call more modest amounts - 10-20 thousand.
The prize fund is collected from sponsorship money or contributions from the participants themselves. Athletes who fight regularly go to two or three tournaments a month. If you win at least one of them, and take second place in the other (for which they often give half the amount), after deducting the cost of the road, you get a “salary” of about a thousand dollars. For the province, this is a lot. And if you win more often, then you can earn more. But there are no such obvious stars in amateur MMA: the rotation of winners happens all the time.
The man whose nose was broken on T-1 is called Ali Baba. His real name is Vyacheslav Yurovskikh, he is 40 years old. Having no fixed place of residence and sometimes spending the night at Moscow railway stations, Ali Baba wanders from one MMA tournament to another. He searches for information about them on the Internet: he carries a laptop with him, maintains a page on the mmablog.ru website and often sits on social networks.
Ali Baba is lean, wears a beard, a broken nose betrays in him a person who has been hard hit in life. A couple of months ago, they wrote about him in a sports magazine. He gained a reputation among journalists as a difficult person: he refused interviews for many, including, in his own words, "many television people" and "some filmmakers."
For some time we corresponded on VKontakte. Ali Baba writes from N-sk, his hometown, where he stopped by to visit his parents. He hides the real name of N-ska and calls it “Zasransk”: “This is a black hole. Solid Groundhog Day."
In the 1990s, he studied journalism at Moscow State University. There he began to practice sambo in the university section. And when life threw him, a provincial, to the sidelines - without a permanent job, without money - it was the struggle that became his main occupation. Ali Baba looks like a bearded spider in the mixfight. He rolls up to the opponent, knits, seeks to take the throw. “Fights are not a fountain,” - this is how he himself speaks of his fights.
"VKontakte" is one of the few ways to contact Ali Baba. “I threw away my phone last November. There is no Skype either,” he writes. He says he doesn't give interviews because he wants to be himself. He has no sponsors. And in Moscow he is still homeless: "For complete happiness, there is not enough of his own corner, at least a room." I could write a book about myself, there were offers, but not yet. In the near future - tournaments in Rostov-on-Don and Belgorod: "This year I fought almost every weekend."
Very soon, the character of Ali Baba makes itself felt. Upon learning that he would not be the only hero of the article, he curtailed the correspondence. Heroes will be "enough without me," reads his last message.
25-year-old native of the Leningrad region Vyacheslav Kashuba is the exact opposite of Ali Baba. He willingly answers questions, and he is not embarrassed that they are going to write not only about him.
“My mother told me: intellectuals should not fight!” - Three years ago, Kashuba, an engineer with a specialization in navigation, went on voyages. Sailed to America, Canada, Europe. Then I found out that very close by, in St. Petersburg, strange fights were being held on the sand - Strelka, and sent an application for participation. “The first letter was not answered. On the second they called back, and so my adventure began.
Today he is known in the world of amateur mixfight under the name Sailor. Although the sea is over for a long time: Vyacheslav flaunts a daring mohawk on his head, trains every day and dreams of making a professional career in mixed fights. Behind him are four fights at Strelka (three wins, one loss) and experience in other tournaments. So far, he says, mixfight is not profitable. But he has before his eyes the glory of the UFC tournaments, the main promotion company in MMA.
In the ranks of the UFC, all today's mixfight stars: black giants Jon Jones and Anderson Silva, curly-haired fighter with African-Korean roots Benson Henderson, light and hard as steel, Chael Sonnen. All of them receive five-figure fees and live the life of real stars. They have broadcasts on cable channels, their own fan sites, they are recognized in any city in the world. But in order to reach these peaks, you need to give all of yourself, all your time. Is he ready for this? Vyacheslav Kashuba is not sure about this. While he did the main thing: he overcame himself, went out to fight against opponents who were both more experienced and larger. What was the most difficult? He recalls street fighting in St. Petersburg: “The most difficult thing was to shovel the sand out of my whole body!”
Underground
Illegal fights are a topic that pops up one way or another when it comes to mixfight. When asked “underground fights in Moscow”, the Internet provides links to a series of journalistic reports. All of them are written extremely rigidly, abound in details and, most likely, do not contain a word of truth.
“In the twilight of a nightclub, guys with fists like sledgehammers gather. Losers often leave the arena on stretchers,” writes one author. Another paints an even more ominous atmosphere: “The Moscow police began to discover the corpses of young people. Clearly violent signs of death indicated that the boys had been killed in a fight. But where, how and who - remained a mystery<…>And after a while the terrible truth was revealed<…>Underground battles were organized in Moscow. The real fights to the death."
In the database of the Investigative Committee, the only mention of the victims of fights is dated 2008. And even then we are not talking about underground battles, but about a completely official championship. A 16-year-old participant in a karate tournament in Kemerovo died of cardiovascular insufficiency after being hit in the chest. The blow was within the rules, no violations were found in the actions of the doctors. Due to the lack of corpus delicti, they did not initiate a criminal case.
The existence of bloody underground battles is also denied in the metropolitan police department of the Arbat district. In the late 90s, legends circulated about this area: allegedly the most terrible tournaments took place in gambling establishments on the Arbat. “If it was once, it is long gone,” says a department employee who asked not to be named. “Today, we have no data on unofficial fighting tournaments.”
Vladimir Klenshev, President of the Russian Pankration Federation, agrees with this assessment:
There is more noise around the so-called street fighting games than real facts. Yes, we have information about such tournaments. But almost always it is the initiative of teenagers who have seen enough films. The case there ends up with a couple of broken noses, and the next day the teenagers start doing parkour or something else that they saw on TV. In other words, none of this is serious.
Main male work
The boom around amateur mixfight is alarming official organizations.
All these fights lack the main component of sport - children's sections, systematic, comprehensive work with youth. All I see is the desire to earn money, - Vladimir Klenshev laments. - Organizers of amateur tournaments want to protect themselves from liability to the maximum. To the extent that they force the fighters to sign contracts where they take all possible risks. Does this sound like the way sports should be?
Klenshev suggests taking an example from Fedor Emelianenko, the legendary MMA fighter. Everything is right with him, the president believes: Fedor trains young people and directs them in the right sports direction with his own example.
21-year-old Tolgat came to Moscow from Uzbekistan, and, unlike the president of the Pankration Federation, amateur fighting tournaments cause only enthusiasm for him. Six days a week, Tolgat repairs the sidewalk on Leninsky Prospekt as part of a construction team. Then, if strength remains, he goes to the platform with horizontal bars in the Neskuchny Garden. MMA fighters generally love horizontal bars. It is believed that they allow you to build muscle in moderation: so that they do not interfere with the speed of the hands. Tolgat neatly folds his T-shirt with the logo of the M-1 promotion company and begins to practice punches.
At home, he was engaged in Thai boxing, not for long - only a year and a half. But in Moscow, he heard, and that's enough to enlist in fights and become a star.
Construction is not my life. This is the second, sums up Tolgat. - And the main thing is the fight.
One hit. Second. The third. Fifty... When it's time for him to enter the MMA cage, he wants to be in shape.
Like Tolgat, other men practice their blows. They do it in gyms. In parks. In the hallways while waiting for the elevator. In their own kitchens, while no one sees. They work as programmers, sales managers, freight forwarders, whatever. But the main thing - and even their relatives may not be aware of this - is not their job. The main thing is the fight.
One hit. Second. Fiftieth…
There are those who know how to fight well. And there are those who are willing to pay money to see a good fight. When interests converge, underground fight clubs appear. The underground prefers to keep silent about these gladiator fights, although from time to time stories about fight clubs slip on TV. Many films have also been shot, where they tell the story of illegal fighters. Remember at least "Fight Club" with Brad Pitt ... But films mostly remain films, with a piece of truth and the lion's share of a beautiful fairy tale. Those rare stories that allegedly feature journalistic investigations in underground clubs also do not tell what is actually happening in the ring and in the auditorium. Everything is shown either too softly, or too hard and scary. Therefore, I decided to write this article. It so happened that in my hometown there is a real fight club, where my acquaintances and friends wave their fists every week. Some of them traveled to the "championships" of the country and international "sports". In short, I am competent in the matter. Therefore, the information below can be considered reliable.
The Fight Club is an illegal commercial organization operating on the principle of a sweepstakes. As a rule, rich people, whose activities are connected with crime, stand above all this. The purpose of creating the underground of the Colosseum is to earn money during an interesting pastime. It is a misconception that supposedly fight clubs are a circle of interests where people come to let off steam. Even those institutions that initially had a non-profit basis, eventually become sweepstakes. Thieves in law, gangsters and local bigwigs rush to the underground carnage to watch a brutal fight, and possibly win money. Fighters join underground fight clubs to earn their livelihood or fix with their fists. Yes, it's not a typo. There are indeed a lot of junkies in fight clubs, but the bulk of the participants are athletes involved in martial arts in various sections of the city. They come to the fight club themselves or they are invited. The invitation is trite and vividly illustrated in the films. Champions are found by a representative of the club, or six of some authority. This person makes an offer to the guy, and if the latter agrees, then the representative organizes a meeting with the owner of the fighter to discuss the details and conditions. It is noteworthy that during such a conversation, the confidentiality of the dominant party is not mentioned. Why - I will explain later. If you want to volunteer for a duel yourself, then everything is simple here too. We need to find those who will lead to the representative. It's easy enough to do if you know where to look.
Fight clubs are illegal commercial organizations operating on the principle of sweepstakes. Fighters come here to make money with their fists, and the rich and powerful flock to the underground Colosseums in order to place a decent bet on a champion or challenger.
Fight clubs can be located in a variety of places. For example, in my city, this is an ordinary basement under a five-story building. Unremarkable, not so much free space, but nevertheless ... There is no ring as such. In the square room there are mats on which the duel takes place. Spectators sit around the perimeter. In the next room, bets are made and vodka is drunk. The fight takes place once a week, sometimes less often. There are not many people: fighters, those who make bets, organizers, and a few “leftist”, but proven people. There must be a doctor. There is a guard at the entrance. This is what the underground Colosseum looks like in a small town. In big cities, everything is much more advanced. Underground fights are held in specially prepared rooms at nightclubs. There are much more spectators, people gather much more seriously, the level of fighters is higher, the stakes are higher ... We can say that a big city is the center to which fighters and their patrons aspire. Quite often, in big cities, “gatherings” are held, where fighters from different parts of the country compete.
Even those underground clubs that were organized in order to be able to come and blow off steam, eventually become commercial. And "Fight Club" with Brad Pitt is just an exciting fairy tale.
Underground fight clubs are illegal, but, as practice shows, they are nevertheless legal. Those. law enforcement agencies do not arrange visits, they do not arrest anyone. Do you think it's a good conspiracy? Of course not. It's just that the local police departments get their share every month. That is why, during the “interview” with a fighter, they do not tell him that it is impossible, they say, to tell anyone about this, etc. If he surrenders, the club will not cease to exist because of this, but the fighter has every chance to remain disabled after such revelations with the police, or to completely cease to function as a living organism.
Underground fights are actually not so cruel. There are rules, there is a judge, there is fighting etiquette. Injuries and deaths - this is an extra fuss for the organizers.
In underground clubs, competitions are held taking into account weight categories. It is rare to see a fight in which guys are fighting, whose height and mass are very different (although this also happens). The battle can take place with or without protection elements. This is already by agreement. But almost never neglect gloves or cue balls. These are fairy tales, as if the fighters on the sweepstakes are fighting with their bare hands. Sometimes, of course, such fights take place, but fighters receive much more prize money for participating in them. I had to see several films where underground fights appeared. In many of them, approximately the following plot developed: there were two friends of the fighter. One decided to make money on fights without rules. He defeated a myriad of opponents, and became a contender for the title of champion. He had to fight with a huge giant with a terrifying nickname like "Bonebreaker" or "Buffalo". In battle, the muzzle beat the applicant, and at the end of the fight he broke his Adam's apple, spine, or something else. In short, he killed. And the hero of the film sought to take revenge on the killer of his friend. This is bullshit. Beautiful, heroic, somewhat epic, but delusional. It is difficult to call it otherwise. I do not know of a single case of the murder of a fighter in an underground club. Despite the fact that sweepstakes are well covered by law enforcement agencies and authorities, killing in the ring is a huge problem, unnecessary waste, a huge risk of going to jail. As I have already said, during the fighting there is always a doctor who will provide urgent medical assistance to the victim. If the fighter's injuries are too serious, he will be rushed to the hospital. But this, as a rule, does not come to that. After all, underground fights are not fights without rules, as many used to think. There is a clear regulation, there is elementary etiquette, a judge is always present. It is forbidden to strike at the joints, groin, Adam's apple, spine. You can not use choking techniques in the stalls. Of course, it does not do without injuries and fractures, but this is an accident, and not a constant phenomenon. The fight goes on until the judge decides that one of the fighters has no chance left, or one of the participants is badly injured. I have heard several times that in some underground clubs the duel goes to first blood. Broke someone's lip - consider it won. However, if your hand is taken for a break, then prepare for the worst, or hope for the compassion of the audience and the referee. Although I still think that this is pure fiction and rumors.
It seems to you that everything is rosy and beautiful, and you want to test your strength in the ring? Do not hurry….
Although the rules are present, it still cannot do without blood and injuries ....
Perhaps in the ring in a normal club you are guaranteed relative safety. But here's how the relationship between the fighter and his master will develop, no one can predict and guarantee anything. I know of a case where a fighter was badly hurt in the ring and decided to give up underground fighting. But since he won more than he lost, his "management" urged him to stay in business. They promised him money for treatment, large interest, but the guy's decision was firm - to start with underground fights, no matter what. The fighter's decision greatly agitated the influential authority, and when the guy left the hospital, they found him and broke both his arms. This act of authority was argued by the fact that he pulled the fighter out of shit, gave him good interest, solved his problems several times, and he refused such an insignificant request. What am I talking about? Yes, that when a person enters an environment where people who are far from the law rule, people with their own specific concepts, he becomes an integral and indivisible part of this world. And it is very difficult to get out of all this. Not because someone can forbid doing it (as in the example above), but because this life is addictive, the normal world ceases to be interesting.
In principle, this is all that I wanted to tell you about. Perhaps your image of fight clubs was more vivid and attractive, and what you read about is not comparable to what you imagined. But unfortunately, things in most sweepstakes are exactly as described above. I repeat - I am fully responsible for the accuracy of the information.
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