On February 16th ACB 80 will take place in Krasnodar. One of the most anticipated fights on the card is the long awaited rematch between Ibragim Chuzhigaev and Igor Svirid. Ibragim has spoken about what this rematch means to him and gave us his thoughts on the fight:
What can you say about your opponent, Igor Svirid, and what does that rematch mean to you?
- That rematch is not really the best thing for my career, I have not much to gain from it but the fight itself - is a triumph of justice. Everyone knows about the mistake that happened 3 years ago, including me. The only one who doesn't want to admit it is Igor Svirid. This is the only valuable thing in the fight for me. I didn't ask for the fight. I wanted to fight someone who is higher than me in rankings but some of them already have a fight and others are not ready. So they offered me a fight against Igor. I gladly accepted it.
What is your prediction for the fight?
- We have both evolved a lot for sure. Some people think that Igor is not as good as he used to be but he was fighting on a high level for a very long time and you just can't count people like that out. He wasn't systematically losing fights, and showing bad performances, it's just was a bad period for him. I'm sure he'll learn from that experience. I'm expecting a tough fight but I think that I'm better that him all around. There will be no controversy this time because we're not equals anymore. I've evolved a lot.
What are your plans for the future?
- I've been asking to fight Billstein because after he beat Butorin he jumped above me in the rankings somehow and I don't like that. I respect him as a fighter, just like all the other guys. I must respect them, I know what sacrifices they are making, we're all going through that.
Other than that, I will always have a championship ambitions, but now, when Albert is the champ, my goal is to beat all the contenders, so Duraev will retire, because he has no one to fight (laughs).
