August, 19. Vyacheslav Vasilevsky became the champion of M-1 Selection Western Europe light heavyweight torunament. He and his coach Alexei Tchugreev speak about his last bout, win against one of the toughest European middleweights Xavier Foupa-Pokam and more

Let’s start from the last bout you won: against Shamil Tinagdzhiev in the final of M-1 Selection. How could you appraise your appearance? Was your game plan executed completely?

V.V. I’d like to use my stand-up skills against him. But he’s a good wrestler, he always tries to wrestle and go to the ground, so we made few changes in our game plan, and, as you could see, it worked well

Were you generally prepared to any fight, stand-up and on the ground?

A.T. Of course, we were. Shamil’s stand-up skills are on the high level as well, so at any moment he could start to box, but it wasn’t surprise for us.

Have you fully recovered after your last bout against Xavier Foupa-Pokam?

V.V. Yea, I was ready 100%. The only problem I had was the cut I got in the fight against Xavier. If I haven’t got it, I was ready to fight in Moscow 22 July, one week later after this bout.

Has it completely healed now?

V.V. No, it actually hasn’t. We did everything we could, but still there was the risk that this gash could be opened again after only one good punch or kick.

A.T. That’s why Slava was so careful in the first round. We tried to feel opponent’s rhythm, and after the first five minutes we realized that Slava could play it safe working from the top. No risky exchanges in stand-up, this victory was too important for us.

V.V. Maybe it wasn’t the most exiting bout for the fans, but my main goal was achieved, and that was the main thing.

You fight in light heavyweight division, and many coaches and experts wonder why. A lot of people advise you to move down to 185. What do you think about it?

V.V. At this tournament my weight was already about 198 pounds. I didn’t do anything to gain more kilos, I’m just growing naturally from bout to bout

You know, a lot of light heavyweights can weigh 205 pounds only for few minutes on weigh-ins, at the fight night they could weight almost 25 pounds more than you! How can you deal with it?

V.V. I hope that in the nearest future I’ll gain enough weight to be at the same size as any normal light heavyweight fighter. Of course, I could try to fight in 185, but technical aspects of middleweight bouts are completely different: speed, technically different fighters etc.

But if someday you have to fight in the middleweight division, it’s not a problem for you to make 185?

A.T. No, of course not. The bout against Foupa-Pokam was practically in 185. French fighters have fought in middleweight for a long time. In the fight night he was about 192 pounds, Slava’s weight was 189,5 pounds.

Was he the toughest opponent in your whole career?

V.V. Another very tough fight was, for example, against Ukrainian Sergey Guzev. Then I was even more physically drained after the fight. The fight against Pokam was more dramatic, because I was afraid to get caught by one of his fast punches and kicks, plus I got pretty deep cut in this fight. Guzev was very strong physically, he’s very dangerous in any position, so I tried my best to win

As far as I know, Gregory Babene was expected first as your possible opponent at the tournament in Sochi. When did you know that it will be Xavier Foupa-Pokam?

A.T. I can say it wasn’t the bout we took on the short notice. We knew about Pokam at least 10 days before the bout. Babene couldn’t fight, because he tried to sign the contract with another organization, that’s how Pokam appeared as an opponent. I think he’s even better fighter than Babene, very experienced and dangerous. It was very interesting bout, because we saw two completely different Xaviers in the first and second round: Xavier-wrestler and Xavier-striker, both were really impressive. We didn’t expect so quick changes from him, that’s why I can say that tactically he was maybe even better than Slava this night.

Was your appearance affected somehow by so big guests of the tournament (Russian prime-minister Vladimir Putin, Minister of Sport Vitaly Mutko and other important persons visited the tournament in Sochi)?

V.V. When I fight it’s all about me and my opponent, I can’t think about anything else. Yes, there was some talks about who’s going to come. On the other hand, schedule of this tournament was really good, because it was the team match Russia vs. Europe. My fight was last, and when it was time for me to fight, Russia was winning 3-1, so I knew that there is not so much pressure on my shoulders, because my team will win any way.

But you weren’t going to lose, right?

V.V. Of course, I’m always going to win! Victory is always important, no matter how good your teammates did before you.

A.T. First of all, it was another step in Slava’s career, very big and very important. He already has few wins in his resume, but most of them were on the local level. We wanted to fight against European high-level fighter, Xavier was probably the best available middleweight fighter at the moment. It was very good test for us?

Which were the results of this test?

A.T. Now we know that there is so much work for us. It’s hard, but it’s always possible to be competitive at any level, if you try hard enough. Especially we were surprised about the fight on the ground; I can say it wasn’t so good surprise for us, by the way.

French school of judo and jiu-jitsu is on the very high level comparing to other European countries. If some good jiu-jitsu instructors will come to Russia someday, would you like to attend their seminars and learn something from them?

A.T. I can say even more: we are ready to go somewhere to attend jiu-jitsu seminars; we are always ready to learn from the professionals. It’s almost impossible to get that kind of experience in Russia. For example, one guy visited our school. He hasn’t black belt in jiu-jitsu, he visited Gracie academy from time to time. But even he can show us something that we can learn and use in the fights.

It’s a normal situation: we need high-level grapplers and strikers to improve our skills. No good sparring partners – no good results. I can say that Slava is an ideal student. He always knows what he has to improve, he trains all that he has to train, there’s no need to watch him every time. We just need some good circumstances for the further progress.