This clearly isn’t the case with Wallid Ismail’s Jungle Fight, as one of the most important fights on next Saturday night’s card in Manaus, Brazil will feature MMA legend Jose "Pele" Landi-Jons, against RusFighters Sport Club representative Alexander Shlemenko. Coming from a young team, the hardworking Shlemenko is only 21 years old himself with numerous wins already under his belt in lower level Russian shows.

With an aggressive and entertaining style, Shlemenko is mainly a striker who’s eager to brawl with Pele and show his own skills in what could be the most important bout of the night. FCF got the opportunity to talk with the promising Russian before he becomes a star.

FCF: Russia is a country that has produced many great fighters in many fighting styles. How and when did you start training Martial Arts?
AS:   When I was nine years old, I started Greco-Roman wrestling. Although I did it for a short period of time, I competed in a few tournaments and took fourth place in Omsk, my home city. When I was 10 years old, I started kickboxing. When I was 14, I started Muay Thai, and when I turned 15, I started Army Combat Fighting. I still do it; I study in a sports institute. My specialty is Army Combat Fighting. [Writer’s note- Army Combat Fighting is a sport very close to MMA. All kinds of striking and grappling techniques are allowed, even kicking and punching a downed opponent. Competitors wear gis and special helmets to protect their faces.]

FCF: I understand you have a lot of experience in Army Combat fighting, which is very traditional in Russia. I’m sorry if I sound ignorant, but do you also have military experience?
AS:   No, not yet. However I took part in multiple Army championships, I represented airborne troops [Marines] — it’s an elite troop in the Russian army. And I won most of them.

Demetriades

Less than two months after suffering multiple stab wounds that put his life in jeopardy, British brawler Lee Murray is back training at London Shootfighters. Coach Alexis Demetriades spoke to FCF about the return of the team’s most famous member. "He started about two weeks ago and he’s doing really well," Demetriades says. "We’re working by strict heart rate. We’re not allowed to take his heart above a certain number, so when he gets very fatigued we check his heart rate, he’s always wearing a heart rate monitor, we check it and we stop, let him recover a little bit, then take it back up to where we’re supposed to take it up to."

Asked if Murray has suffered any after-effects from his injuries, Demetriades responds emphatically, "There are absolutely no long term effects. He got stabbed four times. He got stabbed in the heart. The heart’s a muscle that will repair like any other muscle. He had to have open-heart surgery because obviously he got stabbed through into his heart so they had to get to it, they broke his chest plate and they opened him up with clamps and did open heart surgery. So the thing that will take the longest time to recover will be the bone fuse, his actual chest plate. Pad work is no problem, a lot of the kicking, punching, the stand-up wrestling stuff is okay, but the jiu-jitsu, the ground work, he’s still not able to have somebody on top of him fully and put their weight on him, because obviously he’s in pain.

Murray is already hungry to get back in competition, says Demetriades. "He wanted us to pencil in a fight for him, but we’re waiting. After the new year we’re looking to start training properly and get a fight within two or three months. Murray has faced a series of setbacks in the past year, from being denied a visa to return to the UFC to breaking his hip in the gym. "We were signed to fight Baroni," says Demetriades. "It was going to be announced the day before he got into trouble. There are loads of great fights happening at the moment in Cage Rage [though]. We’re real interested in Curtis Stout, Anderson Silva, Matt Lindland, any of these fights would be great for us. It’s just a matter of Lee recovering really well and having a warm-up fight before he jumps into top-level competition. We’re definitely looking forward to getting him back in the ring as soon as possible."

CWFC Heavyweight Title Bout
(Champion) Jeff "The Snowman" Monson (18-5-0) American Top Team, USA
vs.
Emmanuel Marc 3-3-0 (Haute Tension) France

CWFC Light-Heavyweight Title Bout
(Champion) Michael "The Count" Bisping (9-0-0) Wolfslair Academy
vs.
Ross "The Gladiator" Pointon (4-5-0) Gladiator Gym, Stoke-on-Trent

CWFC Middleweight Title Bout
(Champion) Martin "Hitman" Kampmann (10-2-1) Kung Fu Toa, Denmark
vs.
Damien Riccio (8-10-0 with 1 NC) Team Riccio, France

Vacant CWFC Welterweight Title Bout
Dan "The Outlaw" Hardy (9-4-0) Rough House Gym, Nottingham
vs.
Matt "12 Gauge" Thorpe (5-3-0) Northern Cartel

CWFC Lightweight Title Bout
(Champion) Alexandre "Xandinho" Izidro (3-4-0) Total Dojo, Milton Keynes vs.
Thomas Hytten (14-3-1), Team Frontline Norway

CWFC Featherweight Title Bout
(Champion) Danny Batten (7-6-2) Total Dojo, Milton Keynes
vs.
Augusto Frota (5-1-0) Frota Team, Brazil/Switzerland

CWFC Women’s Title Bout
(Champion) Rosi Sexton (4-0-0) SBG Manchester
vs.
Dina van Den Hooven (2-0-0) Tatsujin Dojo, Holland

CWFC Bantamweight Title Bout
(Champion) Paul McVeigh (4-3-0) Dinky Ninjas, Ireland/Scotland
vs.
Phil "Billy" Harris (9-4-0) Team Warriors, Portsmouth

UNDERCARD