On December 15 at RCC5: Russian Cagefighting Championship former Bellator champion Alexander Shlemenko (56-12) will face Scott Askham (17-4) of UK. For both athletes, the fight will be the first under the RCC promotion.
Shlemenko will be the most experienced fighter in the RCC5 tournament - he has 56 victories in 68 fights, he was the owner of Bellator belt and has the victory at the Grand Prix of Bellator and M-1 Global on his vast resume. In addition, he is one of the five strongest middleweights of Russia. Alexander previously fought in October at the Bellator 208 tournament against Anatoly Tokov.
Scott Askham approaches the battle with a series of three victories and already has fought in Russia. In 2017 he had a successful fight in the ACB tournament. Askham began his professional career in England and remained undefeated until the transition to the UFC. In the world rankings Askham occupies the 26th rank and is ahead of his opponent by nine positions.
Alexander Shlemenko noted that Askham is a very awkward opponent: “I have already started to study the difficult sides of Askham. I watch his fights. He is an awkward opponent. His advantage in size is that he makes good use of his height, works a lot with his hands and legs, and at the same time he can withstand the hardest punch. In addition, he is a southpaw and won many fights by knockouts, he works well with his knees and is a master in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.”
Alexander also believes that Askham agreed to the fight because of his winning streak and the problems of the Russian fighter in Bellator: “I understand that, unlike me, Askham approaches the battle with a series of victories. That's probably why he agreed to it. However, mentally I feel great - I managed to close the issue with Bellator. In addition, during the battle with Tokov I did not miss a single blow, because he had clinched a lot and avoided a fight. Naturally, I was dissatisfied with the fact that I could not show my level, but already that evening I was ready to re-enter the cage.”
RCC5: Russian Cagefighting Championship is scheduled for December 15 at the Ekaterinburg-EXPO IEC. It is already known that in the framework of the evening, Alexander Emelianenko will meet Francimar Barroso. Also this week Ivan Shtyrkov will know the name of his rival for the tournament.