Heavyweight sensation Oumar Kane returns to the ONE circle Wednesday at ONE on TNT IV. The fight comes just weeks after his last outing, and sees “Reug Reug” taking on fellow undefeated prospect Kirill Grishenko.
Grishenko, like the Senegalese wrestler, has been a finishing machine thus far in his career. But despite that, Kane (3-0) is not planning to make any changes in the fight.
“I won’t change my strategy. I have a way of going through things, and I won’t change it because of my opponent,” he said during Monday’s ONE on TNT IV media day.
Immediately after his win against Patrick Schmid earlier this month, Kane had suggested that he’d be up for fighting again within weeks. The promotion made it happen. Asked if he had any inkling that a quick turnaround would be possible, Kane said simply that “ONE Championship is a big league, and on top of that it is very flexible. So it all depends on my shape. And talking with the promotion organizers, they understand I was well in shape and ready to fight, so they just pushed for it and organized a new fight.”
In terms of training adjustments given the short-notice nature of the bout, Kane explained that “I didn’t change any of my routine, I just kept doing the same thing, pushing for cardio, pushing for the same training routine. Nothing changed.” In fact, if he were booked into a new fight two weeks from now, “then I would do the same,” Kane stated.
Kirill Grishenko, like “Reug Reug” sits at 3-0 as a pro, and is an interesting prospect out of Belarus. He’s finished all three of his opponents, none of whom had much experience. But he’s performed exactly as expected, dominating competition he should have dominated.
“I’m ready to take on whatever my opponent is bringing,” Kane said of the match-up. “Whether he wants a tough fight, or whether he wants to play technically.”
“From my side, I don’t like long fights, so I don’t think this fight will last more than two or three minutes,” he added.
Watch the full ONE on TNT IV media day interview with Oumar Kane above. The event takes place Wednesday, April 28, with the main card airing live on TNT starting at 10PM ET.
