Well-known Russian blogger and MMA fighter Artyom Tarasov claims that the long-awaited ring fight with the Russian mixed martial arts fighter, Alexander Emelianenko, will take place next month.
The Mixed Martial Arts fighter Emelianenko,40, signed a contract for a duel with the blogger Tarasov, 31, to take place in Moscow in September this year.
On 12th June, MMA star Alexander Emelianenko announced on Instagram that in the near future he intends to fight against blogger Artem Tarasov.
He wrote: “I heard that blogger Artyom Tarasov wants to fight me. Well, what should I do? It looks like I’m going to have to beat this little boy up and put him in his place.”
Upon seeing Alexander’s Instagram message, the MMA fight show ‘Our Business’ invited fighters Emelianenko and Tarasov to participate in a fight, to which both men agreed.
The show’s founder, Artur Arutyunyan, gave more details about the fight in an interview with local news site Life.
Artur told Life that the fight will follow boxing rules because: “Alexander weighs a lot more than Artyom and we want the fight to be as even as possible, so it was decided that the fight will take place according to the rules of boxing with MMA gloves.”
He added: “This will give Artyom has the chance to create competition for a fighter like Emelianenko.”
According to Arutyunyan, 10 million rubles (98,775 GBP) will be offered to Alexander Emelianenko for participating in the fight and 5 million rubles (49,387 GBP) to Artyom Tarasov.
He added that he is confident both fighters will more than deserve this pay-out after the fight which he says is planned for this autumn.
Life reports that Tarasov has not yet signed the contract but plans to do so as soon as possible.
According to Life, Tarasov himself acknowledged that Emelianenko is a legend and it’s for this reason he agreed to accept the change even though the two fighters are in very different weight categories.
In Emelianenko most recent fight, which took place in July last year (2020), he lost by knockout to Magomed Ismailov at the ASA tournament in Sochi.
Artyom Tarasov, like Emelianenko, also lost his last fight when a unanimous point decision declared Mikhail Koklyaev the winner at the Ren TV Fight Club tournament in February 2021.
