On Friday, December 15, the RCC 17 tournament will take place in Yekaterinburg, the main event of which will be the fight between Alexander Shlemenko and Alexander Ilic. For many, the Serb unexpectedly won the first confrontation in 22 seconds. Of course, Storm wants to repay her debt to her offender.

The Russian, by the way, was already in a similar situation. Having quickly lost in the first fight, Shlemenko simply destroyed his opponent in the return match.

Lightning revenge performed by Alexander!

“I was too confident of victory”

On the first day of summer 2017, St. Petersburg hosted the M-1 Challenge 79 fighting tournament. The main event of the evening was a fight between two former Bellator champions – Russian Alexander Shlemenko and American Brandon Halsey, nicknamed the Bull. Two middleweights fought for the belt in 2014; the American then managed to put our fighter to sleep in just 35 seconds.

It’s interesting that Storm knew Halsey before the first fight: they once trained in the same gym. During sparring, the Russian was often stronger, which is why he was perhaps not sufficiently prepared for the title fight.

“He was ready to fight in training, but avoided standing. I think that’s why the first fight turned out that way. I was too confident of victory. And I bought into it all. I believed that I could easily win against him,” Shlemenko told Match TV.

Alexander Shlemenko / Photo: © RIA Novosti / Ramil Sitdikov

Alexander had almost three years to work on the mistakes, and he didn’t waste any time. During this time, Shlemenko won five fights, and another fight was declared invalid. But Halsey could hardly count this same period as an asset. Even after winning, the American managed to lose the championship belt because he did not meet the weight category limit. Then he lost twice more and at the time of the rematch with Shlemenko he had not entered the Octagon for almost a year.

End of the duology

Before the M-1 tournament, Bull made weight, although for this he had to completely undress. According to eyewitnesses, the American looked lethargic at that moment, but six hours later he was already quite alert. During this time, the American fighter miraculously gained nine kilograms, which is why Shlemenko had well-founded doubts about his opponent’s doping purity.

And yet, Alexander was confident that he would be able to punish his arrogant colleague, with whom he found it unpleasant to even be in the same room. Noting that in any case, people win, not steroids, Storm set out to take revenge.

A few seconds before the start of the fight, the rivals glared at each other, and when the referee gave the go-ahead, they immediately rushed into battle. Alexander kicked hard to the body and, apparently, hit the liver area.

Brandon Halsey and Alexander Shlemenko / Photo: © RIA Novosti / Ramil Sitdikov

The bull collapsed on the flooring, and the Russian began to finish him off. After a series of blows, Halsey capitulated, trying to tap Shlemenko’s leg. But he, perhaps, in the heat of battle did not notice the surrender, and the judge did not react to the gesture of the desperate fighter from the USA.

After another round of attacks, the referee stopped the fight 25 seconds after the start. The heated Alexander could hardly resist pinning Halsey again, but, swinging, he stopped in time. Brandon held his ribs and was in no hurry to get up. Shlemenko celebrated the victory emotionally and did not intend to inquire about the health of his defeated opponent. The story of the confrontation with Halsey was over for him.

Will it be possible to end the duology with Ilic on a positive note? We’ll find out very soon.

Live broadcasts of mixed martial arts tournaments can be seen on the Match TV and Match! Fighter”, as well as on the websites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.