Bellator 260 welterweight title challenger Yaroslav Amosov enters the event with a pristine record of 25-0.
He hopes to exit it with championship gold. And he’s refusing to look past that.
Asked during the Bellator 260 media day what he would want were he to extend his perfect record and get past champ Douglas Lima, Amosov wasn’t biting.
“Now, I have a fight with Douglas Lima. I want to win this fight, my focus is on Douglas,” the Ukrainian fighter stated. “After the fight, I win, okay, we talk [about] my next fight. Now, I won’t talk, because winning the title is [important].”
How he might win that title seems to be the question at the moment. Asked whether he might put some of his grappling on display against a dangerous striker in Lima, Amosov replied by saying “I show you what I do in the cage. How doesn’t matter. Striking, wrestling, grappling. Now I have a title, title shot, and I must win. It doesn’t matter how.”
Opponent Lima’s last trip to the Bellator cage was in a less than successful bid to claim the then-vacant middleweight title against Gegard Mousasi. After coming up short in his quest for a second belt, Lima is returning to welterweight against Amosov — who isn’t reading too much into the champion’s previous fight.
“It’s a different weight, different opponent,” he observed. The challenger is happy to see fans back in the building on Friday night, however. “I like fighting with fans, because it’s energy. Big energy,” he stated.
Calling it a “beautiful gift” for a beautiful fight, Amosov added that the screams of the fans would add “big energy” for him.
He’s also excited to have a shot at gold on “a big level” following a decorated career in Sambo. Bellator MMA, he said, is “big level. Because Sambo, yeah, it’s good, but it’s an amateur sport. This is professional, big level.”
Watch the full Bellator 260 media day interview with Yaroslav Amosov above. He throws down with champ Douglas Lima this Friday, June 11 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, CT.
