I respect Denis Smoldarev very much, so my preparation was tough. I’ve trained harder and longer than normal. My sparring partner Jedrzej Mackowiak simulated Denis. He was doing his job very well. He did everything that Denis did in a fight with me. I’ve been training kickboxing with Marek Drazdzynski, the KB European champion, and MMA with the head coach Andrzej Koscielski in Ankos MMA. I’ve implemented my game plan 100%.
The plan was to takedown first. Everybody thinks I can only fight in stand-up. So I wanted to surprise my opponent and try a takedown. Denis is very strong and I knew this fight will be very hard. I'm happy about defeating Denis. He's got a very good record and big names on his schedule This is my best win in my career.
Now I'm number one in the ACB ranking. I’m riding a 3-fight winning streak in ACB. Goltsov is a top fighter and I want to fight him. This is a big chance for me and a great honor. My goal is to get the ACB belt. I don’t care who I’ll have to fight. Rasulov was better than me that day. But the best way to show the world I'm better than Rasulov is to defeat Denis Goltsov
