Newark — Welterweight Yaroslav Amosov had to delay his post-fight media scrum on Saturday by just a few moments to take a swig or two of Coca-Cola. Turns out, in preparing for his fight against Joel Alvarez, the Ukrainian had cut out sugar for three months.
“Different life,” he exclaimed while munching on a cookie, speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press.
Amosov’s sacrifice paid off with a submission win against Alvarez on Saturday’s preliminary card. He’s now 2-0 in the promotion, 30-1 overall, and has seen the difference in reception when he tells people he’s a UFC fighter, instead of a Bellator champion.
“After my first fight, I felt this. I felt many peopled started following me. When you’re a UFC fighter, this is a little bit different. I talked with many guys who may be champion from different organizations, it doesn’t matter. You’re a super, super champion, you defend the belt couple times, it doesn’t matter. If you’re not a UFC fighter, people don’t respect you,” suggested Amosov. “Of course, respect, respect but not like— you can talk with somebody, you can be a super champion, but people ask you, ‘oh this is not UFC?’ And you can say ‘no, no this is not UFC’ and people say ‘ah, ah, okay okay.'”
“If you’re a UFC fighter, people [are like] ‘ohhh!'” continued Amosov. Now, Amosov added, if he shows up in the mall, “now I can say yes, I’m a UFC fighter,” and people will ask to take a photo with him. Even if he was 0-10 in the UFC, he added, “people think this is different people. This is not different, but people have this [idea], like ‘UFC fighter.'”
Yaroslav Amosov’s goal is to become a champion in the UFC, and it isn’t just down to winning, he observed. “This is very important — how I will win.” UFC 328 saw him pick up a Performance of the Night bonus, so on that front, he’s on solid footing.
Watch the full UFC 328 post-fight press conference with Yaroslav Amosov above.
