Fighter Semyonov linked the defeat of Shlemenko with a mistake in tactics

MMA fighter, world and European champion in mixed martial arts, adviser to the governor of St. Petersburg on sports and youth policy Andrey Semenov commented on the defeat of Alexander Shlemenko in the fight against Alexander Ilich at the RCC 12 tournament in Yekaterinburg.

According to him, the tactical error of the Russian could become the reason.

He said that Shlemenko himself was preparing for another opponent.

“It is possible that he underestimated the opponent. But he is an experienced fighter. And even before the fight, he said that it would be more difficult for him to go against the Serb, because initially he was preparing for the fight with Ismailov. And then the opponent turned out to be tall, with long arms, left-handed“, he noted.

In his opinion, the Russian did not calculate that the Serb would hit with his knee.

“Based on the fight that I saw, Sasha wanted to get closer. But somehow, apparently, it turned out unsuccessfully. He didn’t expect the Serb to kneel. It turned out that he hit him right in the head area and hit him. Most likely a tactical blunder“, – he said.

He also noted that the judge could give more time, which could help Shlemenko get ready. Perhaps the outcome would have been different.

“It was possible to give more work, because there was no such direct knockout. Shlemenko is still an experienced fighter. There was no such deaf defeat. Maybe it would be worth giving some amount of time, he could pull himself together and get out of the situation.“, – said Semyonov.

Earlier, Shlemenko said that he did not understand the referee’s decision to stop his fight with Alexander Ilic, which he lost in 20 seconds.

“It’s not clear to me, the referee stopped me at the moment when I started to get up. What’s the point? At the same time, he never said “protect yourself”, “more actively“, – he said.

The Russian MMA fighter said he was ready to take revenge.

Alexander Shlemenko lost in a fight against Serb Alexander Ilich. Despite the fact that the Russian was the favorite in the fight, he failed to defeat the opponent. Ilic managed to knock out Shlemenko in less than a minute.