Alexander Shlemenko isn’t exactly a “pot stirrer” when it comes to trash talk in MMA. You won’t find him headlining any news items by verbally attacking other competitors. That is, until now.
Low Kick featured a translation from ValeTudo.ru in which the two-time Bellator middleweight tournament winner accuses UFC fighters of faking injuries to avoid bad matchups.
“I can tell you for sure, 100%, I know why there are so many injuries. I personally find UFC fights not as exciting because of all those injuries. There are a lot of background tactics around who’s fighting who; fighters are trying really hard to have a good record in the UFC. If you’ve been offered to fight someone who’s considered a bad match-up, then it’s pretty easy to say ‘hey, I’m injured’.”
Shlemenko even went as far as singling out a single fighter as a case of faking injuries.
“For example, they offered Brian Stann to fight Hector Lombard. He got injured, and then the next thing you know – he’s fighting Michael Bisping. I can see the logic – for Brian Stann it makes more sense to fight Bisping, he’s simply more popular in the UFC than Hector Lombard. That’s why beating Bisping means more than beating Lombard, who’s a risky opponent.”
The former title challenger finished his thoughts by explaining that getting out of an UFC fight due to injury is almost as easy as going to a middle school nurse to get out of math class.
“You can fake every injury. Just tell [UFC doctors] about the symptoms and that’s it,” he said.
Shlemenko doesn’t have a big name or rank highly in the 185-pound division, but it’s certainly hard to ignore the conspiracy theory argument from a fighter who has been in the game for a while.
The man at the focal point of Shlemenko’s argument attempted to avoid giving a response but eventually Stann replied back to Shlemenko.
Stann retorted Shlemenko’s arguments through his Twitter account stating that he (Stann) had already agreed to fight Lombard before the former Bellator champion even signed an UFC contract. Stann also explained that the UFC didn’t want to delay the debut of Lombard.
“My injury was a 6-8 week recovery & the UFC was not interested in delaying his debut to wait for me. Fighters don’t fake injuries, we have to pay the bills guys!” (Twitter)
I’m not sure why Shlemenko is coming out now and saying this as he’s typically a pretty quiet guy when it comes to media attention. Perhaps he’s trying to get his own name out there to become a bigger draw under the Bellator banner or maybe he was just asked the right question?
Regardless of the intention, Shlemenko just saw his fan notoriety shoot up more than any fight in Bellator could’ve done.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com