Igor was a very good fighter. Too bad he is only remembered for this:
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Igor’s ground game looked white belt compared to Sperry, but just a tough MFer to survive. Sperry should’ve won that easily considering what he did vs. Igor Vovchanchyn.
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Sperry tapped due to exhaustion.
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I remember watching Extreme Fighting on PPV. Maybe a couple months after that fight, I competed in my first BJJ tournament --a large Joe Moreira tournament at UC Irvine. (Those were the biggest BJJ tournaments in Southern CA, at the time).
IIRC, there were no white Belt divisions, so I competed as a Blue Belt. (I was a White Belt)
I looked over and saw Igor --in a Blue Belt-- on the same mat as me! I knew exactly who he was.
–Holy SHIT!
Turns out it was a mistake, he was in a different weight class. But he still competed as a Blue. I felt sorry for his opponent, whoever that was.
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Another fun fact about Zinoviev, is he was a bodyguard and driver for Jeffery Epstein.
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Sperry addressed that fight on here when one of you moonies was complaining about he didn’t tap and lost because he was cheated. He replied with, “sperry lost because he got his ass kicked”. He was an interesting cat who referred to himself in the third person. He was posting to drive the helio moonies insane prior to Brito facing ricardo almeida in the naga super fight. If memory fails me not, rodrigo “not comprido” medeiros was supposed to face rodrigo Gracie in the same event
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Didn’t look like a tap. He was smearing the blood off his hand on the mat.
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agree with you. laid back dude
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Didn’t look like a tap but he was done from exhaustion.
In that tournament, Sperry’s record was touted as “272-0” or thereabouts, which seemed to be the trend for all the Brazilian fighters back in those days Cough, Rickson, cough. So with 272 fights to his name you’d think he would understand the situation with regards getting cuts or damage that could potentially stop the fight. The reality probably is that it was his first outing in the world of fighting outside Brazil or even his first taste of Vale Tudo, so wasnt sure what to do, so just showed he had been cut and the fight was stopped as he “tapped”, whether it be the case or not. Its the most unusual tap I have ever seen for sure, just slapping a blood soaked hand on the mat once!
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And to add to that, I dont think Sperry or his team were prepared for just how tough Zinoviev actually was, especially after he had just manhandled Rudyard Moncayo earlier on that night! Zinoviev was able to hold enough sperry’s grappling but did very little to damage him, if memory serves me right, zinoviev was holding the cage while sperry was behind him, sperry tried some wild jump attack to get on his back, even though the two of them were caked in sweat. Zinoviev knew what was going on, and was able to duck out then hit sperry with a knee, or punch or something, causing the cut! Sperry wasnt in a position where he was in any sort of troulble, so I genuinely dont think he tapped. Or if he did, then it was due to exhaustion, which has already been mentioned.
dont forget that Carlson was Sperry’s coach then. Carlson is known for preparing fighters very well…
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Not always. Remember Vitor vs Couture? Couture dominated Belfort with ease because Vitor didnt prepare properly!
Little know fact (I think) but Igor went on to be Jeffrey Epstein’s driver/bodyguard. (Again…I think)
Edit:
Nevermind…already posted.
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Didn´t look like a tap to me and the Guillotine didn´t look that tight. But when the refs stopped it Sperry didn´t looked upset either…
Strange situation.
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