Shamil Gasanov had to endure some dire circumstances to be able to train in his native Dagestan.
Gasanov sent shockwaves through the ONE Championship featherweight division after delivering a first-round submission to Kim Jae Woong in his promotional debut on ONE on Prime Video 3 in October.
Having already made his mark as the No. 5 ranked contender in the division, ‘The Cobra’ will attempt to score the biggest win of his career when he meets former ONE two-division world champion Martin Nguyen at ONE Fight Night 7. .
Ahead of their February 24 matchup, Gasanov spoke to ONE Championship about the unenviable conditions he faced while training on home soil:
“We had to sleep in the gym; there was a separate room set up for it there. There were no windows or heating in the gym. Sometimes when we trained in winter, there was a lot of fog in the room because of our breath. Sometimes it was minus 5 degrees Celsius. [23 degrees Fahrenheit] in the gym in winter.”
For what it’s worth, the training conditions have helped Gasanov become one of the top Russian prospects in all of mixed martial arts. Going into his fight with Nguyen, ‘The Cobra’ is an impressive 13-0, with most of those wins coming by submission.
Shamil Gasanov says his ONE Championship debut felt no different than a training session
When Shamil Gasanov first entered the circle, no one knew what to expect. Given that it was the biggest fight of the Russian’s undefeated career thus far, it would be understandable if the fighter would show some nerves in the circle.
However, that was far from the case, as Gasanov looked calm, collected and collected the entire time.
In an interview with the promotion, ‘The Cobra’ revealed that he did not feel any kind of nervousness and compared it to another training session in the gym:
“It was the first time I had competed in such a big stadium. But there were no nerves at all, he was calm. I went into the fight like it was a regular sparring session.”
It will be interesting to see if Shamil Gasanov maintains the same demeanor when he meets one of the most prolific finalists in ONE Championship history, Martin Nguyen, in his second appearance at ONE Fight Night 7.
The event will stream live and free in US prime time on February 24 to Amazon subscribers in North America via Prime Video.