Oleksandr Mukhin

28-year-old fighter from Irpen with a perfect record of 26-0 Yaroslav "Dynamo" Amosov is the first Ukrainian champion in the history of Bellator. Although it is the second largest mixed martial arts promotion in the world after the UFC, but over the past few years, the organization is increasingly moving away from associations with an appendage of the strongest league in the world and becoming an independent competitive platform. Therefore, Yaroslav's achievement should not be underestimated.

Amosov started in martial arts late, but in a relatively short period of time he managed to collect a lot of awards both in the Ukrainian and international arena. And winning the Bellator belt and being in the top-5 of P4P league ranking looks like just another step in building his own legacy in the world of martial arts.

Yaroslav started actively practicing combat sambo at the age of fifteen in the Kiev club "Hermes" under the guidance of coaches Fedor Seredyuk and Vadim Korytnyi, with whom he works to this day. Later, Amosov achieved much success in this sport and became a multiple prize winner of the Ukrainian Championships and Cups, four-time World Champion, three-time European Champion and very spectacular knockouts.

Simultaneously Yaroslav performed in mixed martial arts in various Ukrainian and Russian promotions. He was engaged in various types of fights and victories - he was fighting, suffocating and knocking out his opponents. At the time of his signing to Bellator in 2017, the Ukrainian's record in MMA was 19 wins with 0 losses.

By the way, although Yaroslav is a fan of Dynamo Kiev, his eponymous nickname is not related to soccer. From the very beginning of his career, Amosov fought in a dynamic manner, which earned him a comparison with the Dynamo machine.

In his first three fights in Bellator Amosov scored three dominating victories (two by unanimous decision and one by submission) and already in his fourth fight in the promotion he dominated the tournament together with rising star Ed Ruth, who said before the fight that he did not see a single feature that could make the Ukrainian win. In the end, Amosov proved to be more accurate in the rack, more tenacious in the fight and took the important victory by unanimous decision.

This was followed by Yaroslav's first and so far only victory by TKO in Bellator - after beating American Mark Lemminger in the first round, the doctor did not release him for the second round. At the press conference, the Ukrainian asked to be given an opponent with a name, but in the next fight he got a tough undefeated fighter at the time, Logan Storley. Amosov led the fight with a small advantage, but in the third round almost got caught by a choke. The result was his first split decision victory in the promotion. Six wins in a row had finally brought the Ukrainian to the title fight.

Yaroslav's entire journey in Bellator from his debut to the champion's fight conveniently fits into a 20-minute slices of the best moments of his fights.

On June 12, 2021 for the first time in his career in the United States Amosov came out on the underdog. It was the title fight against one of the Bellator's biggest stars, Douglas Lima, who had beaten such serious opponents as Rory MacDonald and Michael Page, but had alternated triumphs and losses by that time. Contrary to bookmakers' odds, Yaroslav did not leave a chance for the Brazilian in any of the rounds and took the coveted belt.

2021 can safely be called the year of Amosov. Although the Ukrainian fought only one fight, with this confident and perhaps for many unexpected victory over Lima he made everyone to reckon with him as a tough and dangerous fighter. Six weeks after winning the title, Yaroslav was nominated for the "Breakthrough of the Year", "International Fighter of the Year" and "Fighter of the Year" at the prestigious MMA Awards (July, 2020-July, 2021 period). He didn't manage to win any of them, but to be on a par with such stars as Kamaru Usman, Charles Oliveira and Israel Adesanya is quite a success for a fighter outside the UFC.

Jaroslav finished the year at No. 5 in the Bellator P4P rankings, the best result of his career. Chris Cyborg, one of the best athletes in the history of MMA, called the Ukrainian "a new era" and Bellator president Scott Coker "a perfect fighter".

There was an offer from the UFC, but the Ukrainian did not like the promotion's attitude

This is a question that no interview with Yaroslav is without. And on all such questions fighter answers the same, that it is necessary to improve the contract with Bellator, and then we'll see. Fight with Lima was supposed to be the last fight under the previous agreement, accordingly, the Ukrainian has already signed a new one, although there was no news about it.

In fact, even before Coker's arrival in the promotion there had been an offer from the UFC, but, according to Amosov, he was not taken seriously, and Bellator's terms suited the fighter and his team. Yaroslav is satisfied with the current state of affairs:

"What I like about Bellator is that everything can be negotiated. I like Bellator. I have a contract, but I can change some things, negotiate, everything is fine. I like it that way. In the UFC there's no such thing. If people sign a contract with them, it's as if they were tied with a rope".

Amosov is indeed actively involved in competitions outside of Bellator - for example, in 2019 he won the gold of the World Combat Sambo Championship as part of the Ukrainian national team, and in September 2021 he won a jiu-jitsu tournament in Zaporozhye. The UFC, however, strictly forbids fighters to participate in any competitions outside of the promotion.

However, Yaroslav himself repeatedly expressed his desire to try himself in the octagon of the best fighter league in the world, and Fedor Seredyuk, the Ukrainian's coach, admitted that he dreamed to see the UFC belt around his wrestler's waist.

Yaroslav is a native of Irpen. And once on a question of local edition "If you in 5 years will become a star of UFC, will you stay in Irpen or move?" Amosov replied that he would live in his hometown. Later, in an interview with Shponarsky, the fighter elaborated on why he didn't want to move:

"At one point the idea of moving crept up. I thought I'd go to America, improve my English, and then we'll see. But then I realized that no. I'd rather live here, everything is native here. America is not very real. Yes, it's fun to visit, to live and see, but not to live. We have something to take from them, they have something to take from us".

Irpen reciprocated Yaroslav. For the title fight with Lima on June 12 a cinema full of about 100 people gathered. The queue at the entrance began to gather already by three o'clock in the morning. On the way to the arena the fighter recorded a video message to the fans, and the victory of his compatriot was met with applause. Amosov received the champion's belt in a T-shirt with a reference to his hometown.

He doesn't like trechtok, he gave his apartment to his trainer, he doesn't compare himself with Khabib.

Yaroslav is that rare type of fighter nowadays, who throughout his career took all the fights that were offered to him. For that purpose, he purposely stayed in the middle weight class, where it was easier to find opponents. You won't hear any dirty trash talking from him (but Dillon Denis got it), you won't see any entertaining press conferences (except for some relevant jokes). On the contrary, Jaroslav is still a humble and approachable guy, just as he was at the beginning of his journey. The story about the apartment he gave to his coach is worth mentioning.

"When I was 20 years old, when I first won an apartment in Yalta, I decided that I would give it to the coach. He has a large family, he needs it more. He would not take it from me alone. Then at the training session with the guys we announced the apartment to the coach, we had to persuade him to take it, and it was not easy. He, in fact, convinced me to take part in that tournament, without him I wouldn't have gone to those competitions, and I wouldn't have started fighting," said Yaroslav.