Over the past year, the UFC has allowed a significant number of notable fighters to be swept up by their competitors. Fighters such as Rory MacDonald, Phil Davis, Gegard Mousasi, and Ryan Bader all parted ways with the promotion in favor of more lucrative offers from organizations such as Bellator. Others, like Nikita Krylov, parted ways with the UFC with a laundry list of valid concerns.
Krylov, who was 5-1 in his last six fights and a Top-15 fighter at the time of his release, took to Instagram to explain the multitude of reasons why he decided to leave the popular American promotion for domestic promotions like Fight Nights in Russia.
“I understand that everyone who asks would be interested to see how I would fight against Manuwa or Gustafsson, I myself would be interested in fighting them, but not right now. Why? Because I’m 25 years old, from which 20 years I did not practice as a professional MMA fighter. Because it is not the greatest pleasure to fly 10,000 km to the fights and leave my one-year-old son. It’s a little harder than writing “why do you fight at Fight Nights?” Because neither Daniel Cormier nor Jon Jones have relatives who live in the city which was recently reported on in military reports.”
Krylov has had two successful fights since parting ways with the UFC in late 2016. The first fight took place in Fight Nights, where he defeated Stjepan Bekavac in 53 seconds. He later headlined a one-off ‘United Donbas’ event hosted in the occupied territories of eastern Ukraine.
Fighting on home soil for the first time in many years has seemingly shown Krylov the various benefits to competing domestically. He explained in the Instagram post that he no longer has to acclimatize after travelling thousands of miles to compete in the United States, or surrender a hefty portion of his fight purse for US taxes. As far as Krylov is concerned, this is an opportunity to focus on improving upon himself.
“Consider that this is such the stage of my career where I am gaining experience and laying the foundation. Fight Nights are determined to offer me interesting rivals and for this, too, thank you.
“I hope that we have closed this topic.”
About the author
