Krasimir, there are few people who do not know that you are a champion, you have won for many years in a row. But do you remember how many world, European and World Championships and Professional Cups are in your championship box?
– I won 7 times World Championship, 8 times – European Championship and 4 times – Zloty Tur.
You're a bit slimmer than you were. You no longer plan to compete in the heavyweight category, or is it temporary and you will gain weight?
– I'm trying to gain weight again and pull heavyweights.
Sasho Andreev every year increases his power results, and his weight too. Do you fear to see him in your weight class?
– If we meet, we will pull and find out who is stronger.
Recently, PAL has created a professional armwrestling rating – URPA, and you are in this ranking as the champion of Zloty Tur on your left hand and the bronze medalist on your right. According to URPA, participants in the rating can hold armfights with each other. Would you like to challenge someone?
– Yes, I want to compete with Levan Saginashvili, Denis Tsyplenkov, Dave Chaffee and Devon Larratt.
You pulled recently with Chaffee in competitions in America. Were you not ready then and you want revenge, or you just become stronger every year and need to try again and again?
– I want to pull Chaffee again, because if we could meet again, I will prepare and pull in a completely different way.
What is your opinion on URPA, how useful is its creation for world armwrestling?
– I think it should be done a long time ago, but it is rather difficult to organize it so that everything is fair, because there is not so much money in armwrestling, and not everyone can afford to go to many tournaments.
In March, we are waiting for the draw of the Top-8, what fights would you like to see in the first round?
– In the first round I want to look at the fight of Tim Bresnan with Denis Tsyplenkov, as well as Dmitry Trubin against Gennady Kvikvinia.
What do you think, what places athletes weighing up to 100kg Rustam Babaiev and Evgeniy Prudnik can take?
– I think that everything is possible. There will be 3 stages and, accordingly, and we don’t know how well the participants will recover between them. Therefore, if in the first round you get a good fight, then everyone, including these guys, has a chance to win.
There are three stages in Top-8, but there is a couple of months break between each stage, so that all participants will have time to rest and prepare for a new opponent ...
– Do you remember when Denis pulled 3 times a year? Me not. Babaiev also did not pull so many times a year. Kurdecha? I do not know, it will be interesting who will be able to save power and be at the peak for almost a year.
What is your attitude to Alex Kurdecha, he is considered the main outsider of the tournament, what are his chances?
– Kurdecha, in my opinion, has chances against Kvikvinia, Prudnik, Bresnan and Trubin.
Who is the main favorite for you in the tournament?
– A favorite in my eyes is Levan.
And what are your plans for the future, what tournaments are you preparing for, in what weight categories, what goals do you set for yourself?
– I'm seriously preparing. Probably, the first championship this year for me will be in April in France, and then we'll see. The weight category in which I will compete depends on the championships, but I try to gain muscle weight. And I have the same goal for the past ten years – to become number one in the world.