Current Bellator MMA Welterweight champion, Yaroslav Amosov, didn’t hesitate to put his mixed marital arts (MMA) career on hold at the height of his career to take on an entirely different battle in early 2022.
Scheduled to face Michael Page in his first-ever title defense in May of 2022, Amosov withdrew from the fight to help his home country of Ukraine in the ongoing battle against Russia after Vladimir Putin waged war. A year removed from that decision, Amosov will return to action to face off against Logan Storley, who went on to win the interim title against Page at Bellator 281.
For Amsov, it will be his first MMA fight in 20 months, but the decision to return wasn’t an easy one because the war is still going on in his home country. Still, the undefeated (26-0) 170-pound champion says his choice to return to action came down to a lot of reflection and pressure.
“Once central Ukraine got liberated, and the city I’m from, once that area became free of Russians, I started to kind of feel like I was getting a lot of pressure from my family and from my friends and loved ones,” Amosov recently told MMA Junkie.
“They said, ‘Listen, our immediate area is liberated. It’s free. It’s time for you to return to fighting and use your notoriety and your platform to be the voice of what’s going on here, as opposed to being physically boots on the ground. It wasn’t an easy decision. There was a lot of pressure from my family, from my friends. But eventually, I decided that’s what I was going to do.”
“The war is still going on,” Amosov said. “People are still dying. But in central Ukraine, there isn’t any military action. But there’s still danger. Russia has been launching rockets all over Ukraine. At any given time, they can land anywhere. There is always danger. There are a lot of issues with electricity and heat all over Ukraine. So things are marginally better in certain parts, but I’m really far from saying things are ‘better.’”
Despite his initial reluctant to return to the cage, Amosov is finding encouragement and motivation with what his country is still going through.
“It’s very motivating, now, more than ever for the people and my fans and what it means for them,” Amosov said. “That would even help me in training. There were even times in our training when I’m feeling very down and then I realize some of my friends right now are sitting in trenches, getting shot at, and rockets are flying everywhere. Compared to them, I have it easy. It helped me and motivated me through training.”
Ahead of his highly-anticipated comeback fight against Logan Storley at this weekend’s (Sat., Feb. 25, 2023) Bellator Dublin fight card in Dublin, Ireland, the promotion has released a touching and inspirational video showcasing Amosov’s time in the middle of the war on his way back to the cage, which you can see embedded above.
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