Just days before his vicious BKFC debut loss, 80-fight UFC veteran Aleksei Oleinik admitted to a series of brutal struggles that are forcing him to fight.
The former UFC heavyweight will turn 48 this year, but is still pushing to compete despite his career at the top level effectively ending years ago. He left the UFC with an 9-8 record in 2022, and has since been competing wherever and whenever he can, albeit with over a year out prior to last night.
On Friday, he was brutally knocked out within 90 seconds by Geronimo Dos Santos as Conor McGregor watched on in the first of a BKFC double header in Dubai. After the fact, a worrying interview he had given to Russian media emerged detailing the struggles he had been facing in and out of the ring.
Aleksei Oleinik claimed he has ‘no place to live’ just before suffering BKFC KO
In an interview with Sport24 that has been translated to English, Aleksei Oleinik told reporters that he didn’t even want to fight before heading into his BKFC debut. However, outside of the ring issues have left him in a tough financial position, and as such he still needs to compete at 47-years-old.
In the heartbreaking video, he is reported to say: “I tried to work somehow, earn money etc and I realized there was a weak prospect that I would earn something for myself, well, in fact, nothing worked out for me, I can just live, that’s it, earn a piece of bread for yourself.
“If I want to get something in terms of my own corner or apartment, I need to return to my profession [fighting] and that’s what I really didn’t want. That’s basically the only way I can get paid for now, well, the biggest money only for this. Not master clases, not training or anything else.
“What else can I do? I didn’t want to fight, I have no desire and the state of my health is not quite what it was seven, 10, 15 years ago and so on…
“I need that money for housing. I don’t have a place to live. I’m sorry but if my leg breaks now and can’t be fixed anymore, I won’t be able to earn anything at all. And where will I live then? With the background that I have, the cars I had, the houses I had, whatever else I had that I achieved.
“Damn, I don’t know, will I live on the street, or at the train station? I want to live somewhere else, it doesn’t sound nice. I want to live in a small place, but one that’s mine. I had a house in Florida that was 500-metres-squared on the same road as Donald Trump!”
Aleksei Oleinik was brutally stopped in front of Conor McGregor
Unfortunately for Oleinik, the fight did not go as planned, and may have spelled the end of his combat career yet again. While he may have received a bumper pay day, specifically fighting in the Middle East where purses are higher, questions will be asked about whether or not the damage was worth it.
Coming out of the UFC in 2022, he was far better known for his grappling than his striking, but he had since taken and won a pure boxing fight in Russia. However, it didn’t work out for him on fight night as he was brutally knocked out within 90 seconds.
With a little more than 20 seconds to go in the round, dos Santos fired off a massive overhand right that caught Oleinik clean on the chin. Despite taking major shots in his career from heavy hitters like Derrick Lewis and Alistair Overeem, this one rendered him unconscious instantly.
