Roman Zentsov recent interview - responds to Fedor comments, career, Pride, politics

[Longtime fan]

I thought this was an interesting interview with Roman Zentsov from November 30 published in Russian, where he discusses his fighting career, Fedor's comments, Pride and political views in Russia. I translated only some of it, mostly about his career and training with Fedor. The rest of the interview deals with his political views.

A little background: For those who are not familiar with what Roman Zentsov has been up to lately - he left Red Devil team (as well as MMA) a while ago; and joined up with various white supremacist groups, such as 'Slavic Union'.

He is heavily involved in spreading what he calls 'nationalistic' message, but it's nothing more than regular skinhead hate rhetoric. His main message is to stop the flow of immigration to Russia from Asian and Caucasian countries, which started after Soviet Union broke up. This is just so you know when in the interview he refers to his 'community service' and other such activities.



Q: Roman, you have not fought in two years. Most people are thinking you're finished with fighting.

A: I'm not finished. I took a break two years ago. I had injuries that prevented me to train correctly. Even in the fights I tried to finish with a quick knock out so that my injuries wouldn't get worse. Fighters will understand: all of this causes you to make mistakes. So I healed up and recuperated. Right now I train regularly, without limitations.

Q: Why aren't you competing?

A: It's a difficult question. I could be building my life, and continue getting paid more money with fighter's purse, but it can be viewed as selfishness to a certain extent. What I do now can be more useful to the community. No question, when you come out to the ring and win, and carry a flag - it has a positive influence - it instills hope and motivation. And I see some strong fighters and think that if I could beat them, again, I could be motivating many young men in our country.

But I already showed something to our youth as an athlete. And it would be one thing if I was alone, but right now Russia has many fighters who compete just as good if not better than me. But to do community service and be in top fighting form is not possible. If you want to be in the top, you need to deny everything else. At this moment I have chosen to do community service.

Q: You don't regret it?

A: Well, it doesn't mean that I outright refuse the idea of continuing fighting. I have some ambitions, and some fire to compete. As an athlete, I have not shown everything that I'm capable of - and this thought pushes me to take some time to return to fighting. But I'm a realist and I understand that many athletes did the same thing - and almost all of them fell. There was not enough motivation. You need to have a fire inside - and with me that fire sometimes burns inside. But I know that I will have to deny everything else and I will have immense pressure - people would look at me more than just an athlete - and that would get in the way.

Q: You're 37. And this break cannot last for too long.

A: Yeah, I will come to a decision eventually and will let everyone know. I had a good rest and now I'm going through tough training, working with guys who compete in MMA and K-1. But to be at the peak of your performance you need to train a lot harder. I have trained with Fedor and know firsthand what kind of hard training you need to do. Fedor is a person who always trained more than anyone. He has a huge love for work.

Q: So why did you stop training with Fedor?

A: I truly could not handle the amount of physical stress in those training camps. Fedor would stress himself and wouldn't give anyone else any breaks. And I couldn't keep up or recover - I just fell apart. I didn't tell anyone about this and didn't complain, but I had problems with a shoulder, and elbow, and started to get spine hernias. I couldn't just 'half-ass' it or lie to myself or my team anymore. I thought it would be better to just be honest: take a pause and just say it straight, that I'm not ready right now.

Q: What did you think of Fedor's comment that you have been broken as a fighter?

A: He said that? It means he had a reason to say it. When did he say that?

Q: On one of the recent interviews on mixfight.ru

A: I have always treated and still treat Fedor as a friend and a close comrade, who gave me a lot. He is a man with a great heart. Regarding his thoughts about me, it's best to ask him. I will ask him myself when we meet. But overall, I understand what he means. Fedor is thinking that I'm tired, broke down: in a sense that that I came up to certain level and was not able to stay there. He has a right to say that as a fighter. I don't consider it a disrespect. But if you look at the other side of my life, which is not connected to professional sport, I only grew there.

Q: There is an opinion that you have been broken by the situation with 'Pride'. After your loss to Werdum via triangle, you have achieved two flashy victories with knockouts - and at that moment 'Pride' was no more.

A: Pride's demise has tripped up many fighters. This was an organization, where the fights were held first and foremost; not the show or the market. There were no backstage games. You could have prepared for your fights with no worries, knowing that you would get 3 fights in a year. You knew all the dates, and there was a calendar of preparation. After 'Pride' fell, there was so much confusion with dates, payouts and even with opponents. So I could be training for a few months to fight with a striker, and a week before the fight everything would change and they would give me a wrestler.

Q: At this moment, who takes care of your management needs as a professional fighter?

A: Nobody.

Q: You did not want to keep hitting Rizzo or Yvel, even though the ref gave you that opportunity. Can you explain why?

A: When I hit, I get a sense if I landed solid, and if the person will get up after the hit. I know very well that the guys that come out against me are deserving fighters, and for the most part are decent people. After the fight with me they shouldn't be laying around for a year, but instead recuperate quickly and come out to the ring again - to make money for their families. I always worked quite tough in the ring, but was never bloodthirsty or had desire to stomp a person, who is already out.

[Fizzle]

interesting read

i enjoyed his perspective about fighting and needing the fire to successfully compete andnot smashing people when they are already knocked out.

can't say much about his political beliefs since everyman has the right to do so.

[Longtime fan]

Here is the second and less interesting part:

Part 2

Q: In your public statements one of your main ideas is that professional sport dumbifies people.

A: Definitely. Each back yard should have some exercise bars, hockey box, playground. Why is amateur sport not being developed? Because in amateur sport you can't be in a crowd sitting in an arena: you are a participant yourself, and you do it for yourself and your own health. It is tough to zombify, scare, or make a materialistic slave out of healthy and developed person. Such a person will start asking questions, and right now such person is not needed. I'm not saying that professional sport should not exist at all. It's just that right now it is being turned into an instrument of control and exists only to hold millions of young people in front of the TV, who just passively watch it from the sidelines. You're with a bottle of beer, armchair, and a monitor, in which you can see your heroes. Such a comfortable and satisfied life!

It is my principle not to train guys, in which I see that their main wish is to just make money in sports, fight to the top level and consume, not thinking about the lives of their close ones. Right now, there are too many professional athletes who could care less what their country gives them - don't care that someone is protecting our borders, so that they could train, or that someone is mining coal, that is being used by them as well. They have achieved a certain level, made some money, and think that everyone around them is scum and don't want to know anyone. I give all my strength to propagandize sport for every citizen. I'm not even asking for the government to help me with it; at least don't get in my way.

Q: Why? They get in your way?

A: Well, one time I went up north, not going to say the name of the city. I was invited by some strong nice lads to do a seminar. There is a coach who teaches kids boxing in a boarding school.

Q: And gets paid 7 thousand rubles a month.

A: Yeah, gets paid for money which he would be laughed out in Moscow. He knows that he could go somewhere else and get paid more, or change his profession, but he doesn't do that, because he's not a loser who can't do anything, but a simple and honest man. So we held our seminar there. There were Russian kids, as well as Caucasians and Komi. Then, after I left, the guy who organized everything – he didn't even ask money from the administration - not only did they not thank him, but instead they fired him from the job. They told him "You organized it yourself without going through us. You can't do that. How dare you?" And this thing happens everywhere. When you come to a new city, the government workers start to get uneasy "What is this? Who are these people: young healthy guys who preach healthy and sober way of life and sports. We're not used to this, who lets them do these things?". A good governor, who doesn't want ethnic and civil unrest, should not get in the way of spiritual and physical development of his people.

Q: Because development of a country is not shaped by how good eleven of her representatives can fake a fall in the penalty box; and not by twenty five young men being able to chase a puck on the ice.

A: Absolutely. The greatness of a country - is a greatness of its people. It's hard to save a hangman by kicking a chair from under his feet. It's tough to fight drug use, if you take away the building block of the culture from the youth, replacing them with some brittle ideas. It's tough to fight alcoholism, if you don't give the youth an alternative in the way of doing sports. What we see now is simply betrayal of its people.

Source: : « , , . , !» - , ! - - - Sports.ru

[R3D]

Q: So why did you stop training with Fedor?

A: I truly could not handle the amount of physical stress in those training camps. Fedor would stress himself and wouldn't give anyone else any breaks. And I couldn't keep up or recover - I just fell apart. I didn't tell anyone about this and didn't complain, but I had problems with a shoulder, and elbow, and started to get spine hernias. I couldn't just 'half-ass' it or lie to myself or my team anymore. I thought it would be better to just be honest: take a pause and just say it straight, that I'm not ready right now.

Wow what a fucking quote.

[Apathy-san]

all time greats have a tendency to obliterate their training camps.

i was kind of shocked yesterday when everyone was all "oh shit" about fedor injuring his two recent sparring partners.

[RussianTopTeam]

Fedor is a fucking beast when he trains, he is bar none the hardest worker in MMA

[Lovable Rogue]

I'm really anticipating getting an impression of his current level of focus come 2/12. The entrance alone will be telling, I believe.

[Lovable Rogue]

Q: So why did you stop training with Fedor?

A: I truly could not handle the amount of physical stress in those training camps. Fedor would stress himself and wouldn't give anyone else any breaks. And I couldn't keep up or recover - I just fell apart. I didn't tell anyone about this and didn't complain, but I had problems with a shoulder, and elbow, and started to get spine hernias. I couldn't just 'half-ass' it or lie to myself or my team anymore. I thought it would be better to just be honest: take a pause and just say it straight, that I'm not ready right now.

Wow what a fucking quote.

Yeah, those camps must be murderous.

[RandG]

part 2 LESS interesting? no way, way more

shows Roman has a brain between his ears and that he realizes theres a bigger picture in this world

great read, always liked Roman but after that he's one of the more respectable guys in MMA. Great attitude and outlook on people's involvement in the world.

not like the criminal hero worship for a dirt bag like Lee Murray getting a bunch of silly questions about dumb things.