-Fedor. Before the fight with Kosaka, and even now we
have heard rumors that you were afraid to fight
Kosaka. Do you think that there is a chance to fight
with him for the third time?

-As soon as Pride offered me to fight Tusoshi Kosaka
in Bushido 6 I agreed right away. However, I was not
in a good shape. Therefore, it is stupid to say that I
was afraid of him. Of course, because of the injury I
could not show 100% of what I was trained for but
eventually than I will be in a good shape I can give
him another chance to beat me. I think the third fight
between me and Kosaka will take place somewhere in the
future.

-Please tell us more about the last fight.

-As I said before I did not like my performance
because of the injury of my finger, I could not train
as hard as I usually do.

-Is it truth that even after X-ray examination, the
injury of the finger was only detected on the
following day after the fight?

-Yes. I am not sure why, but this is how it happened.
Right after the fight I felt some kind of discomfort
in my finger, so we went to a clinic to do an X-ray.
The results came right away. The doctor said that
everything is fine, there is no injury but told me to
put on a bandage. I did that but that same night I
could not sleep because of strong pain in my finger.
The following day we went to another hospital after
this sedond X-ray we could clearly see the fracture on
my finger.


-I know that exactly the same thing happened with your
brother Alexander. The fracture was found right after
the return from Japan?

-Yes. Alexander did his X-ray in Russia and he has the
fracture of the same finger as I do. However, his
fractire is in a different place, closer to the hand.

-Why do you think that the Pride doctors did not give
the correct diagnostic, are they hiding something?

- We did not go to Pride’s doctors for the first
examina. The doctor in the first hospital (is not
associated with Pride) did the examination very
superficialy.
The next day we went to a different hospital. Pride
hires all the doctors from this clinic for fighter’s examination

and stitches of the injured fighters. When we did a second

X-ray’s doctor saw the fracture in my finger right away.

-What do you think about Alexander’s last fight and
his current position in Pride?

-I think, is a top 5 HW fighters in the world.
You all will see it soon. You can actually see how he
has developed as a fighter. The last fight he did what
he was trained for. Alexander’s opponent could not do
any damage to him, in fact Morais did not land even
one punch on Alexander.


-Do you know who is going to be next Alexander’s
opponent?

-No. We do not know yet. Everything depends on his
recovery. For now we can not talk about any future
fights. I think, the next time he will be able to step
into the ring will be in August.


-How did the president of Pride Sakakibara speak of
your and Alexander’s fights?

-Sakakibara was very satisfied with Alexander’s fight.
My fight with Kosaka he liked but he was not pleased
with my injury because now the fight with CroCop,
which was setup for June originally, might be
cancelled, but it definitely will take place in August
at the latest.


-Yes. Your future fight with Mirco is a very popular
thread on all popular MMA forums.

- The only thing I can say now is that I am fighting
Mirco next for sure.
However, I do not know when it will take place. My
injury is not giving me a chance to train very
efficiently. Everything depends on how fast my doctors
will give me a green light to use my hand without fear
that it will be damaged again.

-Fedor, in one of the last interviews Antonio Noguera
said, that you are not as great a wrestler as you were
before. And now after his hard trainings on the ground
Noguera knows how to defeat you in the next fight
against you. What do you think about that?

-I think that this interview is just an excuse. No one prevented him

from training for the final fight against me. He could be a titleholder

of 2 belts, it was a good motivation I think. No one prevented Mirko

from training harder for GP 2004 so he could meet me there. He lost

to Randleman and lost his chance to fight against me in last year in Finals.

(He was too confident and didn't put much thought in his fighr against

Kevin and got caught.) No one prevented them from training harder for

these fights so they could meet me. It is laughable if they are saying they

could beat me easily now.

-And the last question. What are you plans for the
future?

-I will be preparing for the title fight against
Mirco, so can be 100% ready for him. We are planning
to visit Kislovodsk twice and train there. Also we
will be guests in Holland to Iogan Bosa.