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Saygid Izagakhmaev made quite an impression during his debut at ONE Championship: Heavy Hitters with a submission victory over James Nakashima. The Russian fighter gained much confidence after the win and would like to battle Eddie Alvarez or Shinya Aoki next:
"I knew I was going to win when I was entering this ring and I destroyed your former challenger so give me another fight. Eddie, Aoki… I’ll kill you," said Saygid in his post-fight interview.
Since making his ONE debut, Alvarez has secured just one victory in five fights. Meanwhile, Aoki seemed to have found the fountain of youth as the Japanese fighter is still going strong at 38 years old. Since losing to Christian Lee, Aoki has gone on a four-fight winning streak.
The 27-year-old Izagakhmaev has now improved his professional MMA record to 20-2. Khabib Nurmagomedov's protege wants to target the biggest names on the roster:
"In my opinion, one the famous names in ONE Championship is names such as Eddie Alvarez and Shinya Aoki. That’s why I want to fight them and that’s why I called them out," said Izagakhmaev in a post-match interview with South China Morning Post.
Watch Saygid Izagakhmaev's full post-fight interview with the South China Morning Post:
Saygid Izagakhmaev debut victory impresses ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong
Izagakhmaev's thunderous debut made Chatri Sityodtong give him the $50,000 bonus thanks to his impressive brabo choke against James Nakashima. The ONE Championship CEO was told by Khabib Nurmagomedov how good his protege is and this was backed up by a good performance at ONE: Heavy Hitters.
"It was very impressive. When I spoke to Khabib when we were thinking of signing Saygid, he said this is the best fighter at his weight class on the Eagles fight team,” said Sityodtong.
Sityodong was amazed how Izagakhmaev moved inside the ONE Championship circle and how he dominated a well-regarded wrestler in James Nakashima:
"When you look at the technique, when you look at — He is also a monster at lightweight," said Sityodtong. "I can’t believe he is a lightweight. He is huge! And for him to dominate a world-class wrestler like James Nakashima – James is working on grappling relentlessly and upgraded it for this fight but still dominated completely."
Watch Chatri Sityodtong's full post-event interview:
