Saidyokub Kakhramonov Doesn’t Think the UFC Should Be Helping Fighters with Money for Fight Camps

After staying on the sidelines for almost a year, Saidyokub Kakhramonov is ready for his Ultimate Fighting Championship return. Former Cage Fury Fighting Championships 135-pound titleholder Kakhramonov (9-2, 1-0 UFC) scored a fantastic technical submission victory at the expense of Trevin Jones in his promotional debut as he choked out his foe with a tight guillotine at UFC on ESPN 29 last August. After that, the Uzbek fighter was scheduled to face Brian Kelleher in January, but the fight was canceled following Kakhramonov testing positive for COVID-19. At the time, Kakhramonov was still training at Team Oyama, but the missed assignment forced him to switch camps due to the expenses he had to endure living in California; he now trains at Warrior Camp in Spokane, Washington. Despite those hardships and hard choices, when asked whether he believes that the UFC should help its fighters to sustain at least part of their expenses for their training camps, Kakhramonov stated that it’s not up to the promoter to do so.

“It's not their fault that my fight got canceled, you know what I mean? It got canceled because I had COVID so I don't blame them,” he said. “I don't think they should help. I mean, we as fighters, we should be fighting as much as possible, like at least three, four times a year. And that would be enough. For me, as a fighter, I will never say like, ‘Oh yeah, UFC should be helping with this fight camp or with that, with this. I mean, it's up to me. I'm just a fighter and then I cannot just stick around, just wait for the fight money. I need to hustle too. To me, I just need to fight more and then I'll be fine.”

(00:00) Intro
(00:44) Training with Terrance McKinney
(01:22) His sparring partners
(02:13) Moving to Warrior Camp
(03:05) Whether he thinks the UFC should help fighters for their training camp
(04:42) Dealing with COVID-19 in January
(05:18) His thoughts on Kelleher’s fight with Bautista
(05.59) Whether he’s still interested in a fight with Kelleher
(07:20) Picking Rafael Dos Anjos vs. Rafael Fiziev
(07:54) Aiming to finish Ronnie Lawrence
(08:20) Not caring too much about his walkout song
(09:15) Aiming to fight again on Aug. 6
(10:10) Outro