Last week a news article quoting Fedor Emelianenko’s Sambo coach, Vladimir Voronov, stated that he believed Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva’s camp employed ‘forbidden psychological technology‘ to help them win the fight.
Now Voronov has come out saying denying that he said anything of the sort in an audio interview posted at MixFight.ru. The interview with the Russian Sambo coach is in Russian, but LowKick.com posted a brief transcript of Voronov’s statement.
“I was really surprised by these reports. First of all, I never gave any interviews after the fight. We were on our way out of the airport, when a boy approached me asking about Fedor’s health. I answered that Fedor feels alright, and will continue to compete in MMA. So he said that it seemed like Fedor didn’t feel so good. I answered that maybe it only seems so, and maybe Fedor doesn’t feel so well (laughing). Then, by these two phrases this lad, who even didn’t say who he was, came to a conclusion that I was talking about some sort of hypnosis. It’s a total bullshit.”
M-1 Global Director of Operations Evgeni Kogan initially defended Voronov saying he was simply making a joke, and that the statement was “lost in translation” via Twitter (@evegnikogan). Which might give credit that the statement actually did happen, but then Kogan would later Tweet another statement that no interviews were given by M-1 upon arrival at the airport.
Voronov: the hypnosis article completely fabricated. No interviews given at all on arrival in Russia. Interview in MP3 on m-1global.com soon
Which is still curious as there were several fans and media on hand at the airport greeting the fighter and his entourage.