Aleksei Oleinik (photo via UFC)

By FCF Staff

Although Aleksei Oleinik emerged from UFC Fight Night 136 with a first round victory over legend, Mark Hunt, the heavyweight contender admits he was extremely nervous heading into the contest.

Oleinik took some heavy leg kicks from Hunt during the bouts opening moments, but he was able to take the feared slugger down, and submit him with a rear-naked-choke. The fight headlined the UFC’s first ever event in Moscow, Russia, where Oleinik is from.

After the pivotal win, the 41 year-old had this to say about the victory (quote via MMA Junkie):

“This is a tremendously hard task to take down Mark Hunt,” Oleinik said via a translator. “He’s a very experienced fighter and very strong. I tried to distract him using a technique I normally don’t use. I hit him a few times, we went into grappling, and then I used my best techniques on him.”

“I was very nervous at first,” Oleinik said. “Then we threw a couple punches, I got into the zone and I knew it was going to be OK. “I certainly found (his non-existent neck). I had a couple scenarios I held back, but I used one of them. Everyone was expecting a certain style of fight from me, but this fight was OK.”

Oleinik (57-11-1) has now gone 6-2 in UFC action, since he joined the promotion in 2014.