Our best fighter does not fight in the UFC. Mokhnatkina will take the PFL belt to Russia
Igor Nekrasov September 11, 2023, 19:00 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
Seven-time world sambo champion and simply a beautiful girl.
The next season of the PFL league will end on November 25. Like last year, the organization plans to hold all the final Grand Prix matches on a single card. Among the six finalist couples were three Russian athletes, including Russia’s strongest wrestler, Marina Mokhnatkina.
Because Marina was born into a large family and lived in a small town, she often had to help her parents with household chores and endure intense physical exertion, which later helped her in sports.
Mokhnatkina’s path began with sambo. In 2010, she Marina first took second place at the Russian Championships, which gave her the right to compete at the European Championships, where she became the winner. After that, Mokhnatkina’s real dominance began: she won nine Russian championships in a row, she represented the Russian team at the world championships, where she won gold medals seven times; she simply had no equal on the sambo mats.
Marina Mokhnatkina
Photo: Cooper Neill/Getty Images
Parallel to her career in sambo, already being a certified athlete, Marina decided to try herself in mixed martial arts. In 2016, Mokhnatkina made her debut in the Fight Nights Global league, she won four victories in a year and a half and qualified for the title fight. Interestingly, all four victories were won using painful techniques – sambo training made itself felt. In the title fight, Mokhnatkina lost in a close fight to Liana Jojua, who later became a UFC fighter.
Marina chose a different path. At first, the Russian did not have the best stage in Bellator, where in a year and a half she only had two fights with contradictory results. And then Mokhnatkina moved to the PFL, where she feels comfortable and still plays.
Learn more about the PFL league and its unique format:
PFL is a full-fledged competitor to the UFC. They stole Ngannou and are working on a unique system
Marina managed to participate in three Grand Prix of the organization. In 2021, the Russian won her debut fight against Claudia Zamora, but the points scored in one fight were not enough to qualify for the playoffs. At the 2022 Grand Prix, the seven-time world sambo champion faced two-time American Olympic judo champion Kayla Harrison in her first fight and she lost by judge’s decision. The subsequent victory over Abby Montes did not help the Russian score the necessary points to qualify for the playoffs.
How Marina Mokhnatkina first made it to the PFL Grand Prix playoffs:
Sambo turned out to be stronger than jiu-jitsu. Mokhnatkina defeated the undefeated Brazilian
In its third attempt in the current PFL season, Marina finished in the playoffs. Before the start of the regular season, Mokhnatkina fought in Yekaterinburg at RCC 13, defeating Brazilian Tatyana Aguiar. Returning to the PFL, Marina knocked out Japan’s Yoko Higashi and defeated Brazil’s Evelyn Martins by decision, advancing from second place to the 2023 Grand Prix playoffs. In the semifinals, the Russian met American representative Amber Leibrock and once again demonstrated the power of sambo: in the first round, Marina performed an elbow and forced her opponent to surrender.
Now Mokhnatkina faces the final match of the Grand Prix against a very serious rival: the current league winner Larissa Pacheco from Brazil. Pacheco defeated Kayla Harrison herself in last season’s final, and she is also undefeated in the current Grand Prix. Therefore, the fight will be extremely difficult, but the reward for victory is adequate: the PFL Grand Prix champion receives 1 million dollars.
All PFL broadcasts are available on Okko.
If at the beginning of her mixed martial arts career Marina focused mainly on wrestling, which is not surprising given her rich experience in sambo, over time Mokhnatkina became a more versatile fighter, improving her posture and technique. suddenly. Who knows, maybe a victory in the PFL Grand Prix final will lead Marina to the UFC, especially since she has connections there: Mokhnatkina’s new husband, Sergei Spivak, is a top 10 heavyweight and can well talk good of his wife with Dana. White. Although the results of the seven-time world sambo champion speak for themselves.
