On April 1, Penza (Russia) will host the 47th Eagle FC league tournament. In the main fight of this event, Kazakhstani Dauren Ermekov (15-5) will fight for the middleweight belt with the current champion from Tajikistan Faridun Odilov (12-2-2). The bbabo.net correspondent spoke about the rival of the Arlan MMA Pro Team fighter in more detail.
Initially, in the title fight of the league of Khabib Nurmagomedov, champion Odilov was supposed to fight with Russian Alexander Shlemenko (61-13-0-1). But in the end, an experienced applicant refused to fight. The official reason - "Storm" did not have time to heal his injury.
The former interim champion of the organization (then the league was still called the Gorilla Fighting Championship - GFC - ed.) from Kazakhstan Ermekov agreed to replace him. Now it is 33-year-old Dauren who will face 29-year-old Faridun, who became the middleweight champion last year and managed to defend the title once.
Odilov's nickname is "Terminator". He has 12 wins, two draws and two losses. He began his professional career in 2016 at the age of 23 years and ten months. The first tournament in which Odilov participated was held in Borovoe (Akmola region), it was the "Battle of the Nomads 8". Then the Tajik knocked out Kazakhstani Zhasulan Khasimov in the first round. Two months later, he fought for the championship belt of the Kyrgyz WEF league in welterweight, but the fight ended in a draw. In July 2017, he made his debut in the Fight Nights Global promotion, and there again everything ended in a draw.
Odilov showed good results in the Chinese promotion Chin Woo Men, under the auspices of which he won five victories in five fights. In May 2018, he suffered the second and so far the last defeat of his career. At the tenth "Battle of the Nomads" in the capital of Kazakhstan, Faridun lost to Shavkat Rakhmonov.
Many call this fight the most difficult in his career for the undefeated Kazakhstani, who has already entered the top 15 of the UFC rankings. During the confrontation, Odilov even managed to knock down Shavkat, but in the end, the Kazakhstani won by knockout in the third round. This is the only time that "Terminator" from Tajikistan lost by knockout.
After this defeat, Odilov did not compete for a year and returned as not a welterweight, and not even a middleweight, but a light heavyweight. At the Battle 2: Road to GFC tournament in Samara (Russia), he made his debut in the weight category up to 93 kilograms with a two-round decision victory.
Until the end of 2019, he won two more victories - at GFC 15 he defeated an opponent from Brazil by decision, and at GFC 19 he won a victory by technical knockout in a confrontation with a fighter from Iran. The fight at the 19th league tournament took place in the middleweight division.
The next fight had to wait a year, and in many respects this happened due to the raging coronavirus. Only in October 2020, Odilov held a light heavyweight title fight at GFC 29. Then he went the whole distance of five rounds against Russian Stepan Gorshechnikov and won by unanimous decision. So the Tajik athlete became the champion of the Russian league.
In February last year, Odilov received a title chance in the middleweight category. At the 33rd tournament, now Eagle FC, he strangled Sergey Kalinin in the fourth round. So Faridun became the double champion of Khabib's league. But in the end, he decided to abandon the belt in the light heavyweight division and focus on middleweight.
In December last year, he successfully defended the belt, knocking out a fighter from Spain in the first round at the Eagle FC 34 tournament. Now he will make his second defense against Kazakh Ermekov.
Faridun has eight early victories - six knockouts and two submissions. It can also be noted that all the fights that ended in a decision were reserved by him. Both Odilov's defeats were early.
Recall that earlier the flyweight fighter Ruslan Sariev (12-1) fought for the belt in the Eagle FC league. Later, featherweight Zhasulan Akimzhan (7-2) and light heavyweight Diyar Nurgozhai (7-0) received title chances, but their fights were canceled for various reasons.
Photo: GFC
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