Vitaly, please share your impressions of the second stage of the Top-8.

- The second stage, like the first, was on top, everything was beautifully done. Therefore, only pleasant memories remained.

Your fight with Evgeny Prudnik promised to be the most interesting, and it was, perhaps, until the third round. You just blocked all Evgeny’s attempts to do something. How did you do it?

- I did mine. I did what I needed - imposed my pulling style. And his struggle was not interesting, so I managed to win.

Did you immediately realize that you would win?

- No, I did not understand that I would win from the start. Immediately, when we just started the fight, we were in straps - then I had an understanding that it was possible to pull productively.

And after the first match I won, I realized that I’m stronger than him. And, like the first fight, I could win the rest.

The last round - did you oversleep or you just was not ready for such a move?

- In the last match, I decided not to bring Evgeny to the referee's grip, but gave him to make a grip as he needed: with a rotated wrist, squeezed front, and did not even strain at the start, I wanted to try to start the fight with a relaxed hand, but did not manage to do anything. Evgeny started first, and when I woke up, my hand was already at the pillow, and I physically could not do anything.

In the final you will meet Levan. Do you think it's possible to defeat him?

- Yes, my last fight will be with Levan. Regarding the victory - I do not think about it. I’ll just come to pull. And there already how it goes. But from experience I will say: everything is always real.