The legendary Russian MMA fighter of American origin, Jeff Monson, intended to end his fighting career in Khabarovsk. The snowman arrived in the Far East to settle scores with an opponent who had been waiting for a duel for 10 years. It was not possible to leave beautifully – the veteran was carried out of the ring on a stretcher.

The path of the Snowman in mixed martial arts is over.

“There are secrets”

Restless Russian-American MMA fighter Jeff Monson was in no hurry to end his professional career, exchanging his sixth decade. Once the Snowman defeated Sergei Kharitonov, Alexei Oleinik and Alexander Emelianenko, tried to compete with Fedor Emelianenko. Towards the end of the sports career, the quality of the opponents dropped noticeably, and it was not particularly possible to impose competition on them in the octagon.

Fedor Emelianenko and Jeff Monson / Photo: © RIA Novosti / Alexey Druzhinin

The 51-year-old fighter decided that it was time and honor to know that the appearance on October 29 in Khabarovsk at the tournament of the local organization DRAKA was supposed to be the last in the Snowman’s career. Monson’s opponent was Alexander Ilyasov, not the most well-known to the general public, but this fight had a backstory.

The fight was originally scheduled for February 2012, when Monson was much more dangerous, but did not take place. Jeff went to St. Petersburg to beat Oleinik, the Khabarovsk audience had to be content with Australian Peter Graham as one of the main stars of the evening, much less eminent Gadzhi Magomedov was found as a rival for Ilyasov. Alexander defeated this opponent, but would he have dealt with an American? The fighter himself believed that he could surprise the star guest.

“He has a lot of experience, but we have our own secrets,” Ilyasov said.

Horizontal Snowman

What kind of “secrets” expected Monson in Khabarovsk 10 years ago is unknown. In the current fight, the local fighter rewarded Jeff with an extremely unpleasant surprise. By the beginning of the second round, Ilyasov was leading on points, the Snowman tried to turn the tide of the fight in his favor. However, an attempt to make a pass to the feet ended in complete failure for the Russian American. Alexander did not allow the opponent to make a takedown, and even awarded the 51-year-old veteran with a strong blow from the toe to the jaw. An extremely dirty punch that has no place in MMA …

Really the whole “secret” was to attack a lying opponent? That is exactly what Ilyasov did with the veteran. Hardly intentional, but that didn’t make Monson feel any better. Alexander apologized to the defeated opponent and went to his corner. The referee clarified how the snowman feels. But here it was clear without any questions – the guest from Ufa is not feeling very well.

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Monson lay with his eyes open and seemed to gather his strength to get up, but he could not get up. The hall applauded the Snowman, at last he began to make the first timid movements. I couldn’t sit down, but I managed to get on all fours. The Minnesota native slowly crawled to the ropes, tried to get to his feet, but did not succeed very much. In the end, a chair appeared in the ring, on which an experienced fighter could at least take a breath.

The MMA veteran looked lost, but at the same time tried to get up somewhere. Whether to continue the fight, or just go away – it was impossible to understand. The doctors coped with the impulses of the Snowman, and finally a proposal was made to pull the defeated fighter out of the ring so that medicine could deal with him more closely.

A sound decision turned out to be difficult in terms of implementation – Monson managed to get to his feet with the help, but he could not seep through the ropes. The Snowman himself did not seem to want to go anywhere, shaking his head, but there was no longer any strength left to resist. Jeff was returned to the horizontal position, since he couldn’t move vertically, and dragged on a stretcher under the ropes. Probably not how the fighter imagined the end of his professional career …

Ilyasov, by the way, was disqualified for a prohibited strike. A victory in his last fight could add positivity to a broken and devastated fighter. However, no one awarded Monson a victory – the referee declared the fight invalid. The hall met this decision with a dissatisfied rumble.