Alexandr Romanov is one of the sleepers in the UFC’s heavyweight division. After a great win at the end of last year, Romanov looked to take a step up in competition and show that he’s the real deal. Now he is taking on Chase Sherman, a longtime veteran of the UFC, and even though that fight was pushed back, Romanov is ready and excited to make his return to the octagon.
Romanov has stuck with his coach Chesea Eduard from the beginning. He believes this coach has been the most important person of his MMA career and an integral part of making him what he is today.
“Since the beginning of my career, I have by my side a very trusted person, it is my trainer for Muay Thai, he was also the one that brought me to this kind of sports. His name is Chesea Eduard.”
It never fails that any time Alexandr Romanov fights, his experience in sumo wrestling is always brought up. But Romanov says that, while it was a cool fact, his time with sumo wasn’t all that long, but he did have some good results while competing.
“Yes, I did have an experience in this direction, but it didn’t last long. I did perform in 2016 at the OPEN European Cup and won the silver medal.”
Alexandr Romanov and The UFC
At a perfect 15-0, Romanov has been on a tear since joining the UFC in 2020. He’s won fights with Roque Martinez, Marcos Rogerio de Lima, Juan Espino and Jared Vanderaa. Three of those have been by finish with the most spectacular coming against de Lima by forearm choke. The brute strength shown by Alexandr Romanov showed that he’s a monster among men with that fight. But he believes that the preparation for the forearm choke, which wasn’t anything new to “King Kong” was the secret sauce behind the finish.
“It was my 3rd fight from my entire career that I finish the opponent with the forearm choke. It took a long time honing that skill in my preparation. It was just applied at the right moment, that’s all.”
Romanov has very high hopes for himself in the UFC. He plans on having a good year this year and becoming a top ten fighter in the UFC’s heavyweight division. But his main goals are even higher.
“For this year, my base goal is to be in Top-10 list fighters. What about a long-term goal? I do plan to win the title of UFC Champion!”
All in all, Alexandr Romanov is excited to get back to action. He works hard, believes he works hard, and puts his all into every fight he has. Every camp, every session, Romanov is going all out to become the absolute best in the world. “I am tenaciously working on my skills and training every time on 100%, but the rest is in God’s hands!“
So why tune in? Alexandr Romanov is the future of the heavyweight division and is only 31. Romanov always goes out to put on a good fight and he takes pride in putting on good fights for the fans. This fight will be no different for Romanov.
“First of all, I always guarantee a good, qualitative fight. People like a show and I will try to make them watch it with pleasure . It will be a very beautiful duel, for sure.”
Godzilla vs. King Kong
So as Alexandr Romanov was making his initial run in the UFC, the movie Godzilla vs. King Kong was released. Spoiler alert, King Kong lost to Godzilla but eventually came around and helped Godzilla fight Mecha-Godzilla in a time where Godzilla couldn’t win on his own. While he lost, Romanov, who is aptly nicknamed King Kong as well, thinks that the world’s most dominant primate can learn from the lessons of a loss.
“Basically, it is just a movie and I don’t think that by it we could judge and suggest anything. Every alpha male, as King Kong is considered, has his battles and needs to defend it’s name. People believe in him and he is their savior, talking about the image created by the screen, of course.”
Romanov continues on and extrapolates some sage wisdom from King Kong’s loss in the Warner Brothers film. “All that I can say is that without losses or moments of weakness, there are no victories and that’s the difference between people that refuse to reach their dreams and the others, which no matter what difficulties would bring them life, follow the goals.”
The real King Kong, Alexandr Romanov, returns this weekend at UFC Vegas 53. It won’t be one you want to miss. Tune in on ESPN+!
