Hi Alex! First of all, congratulations! A little time has already passed after your struggle with Rustam. Tell me now with a cold mind, how did this fight look from your point of view? Did anything surprise you?

- First of all, thanks to all the fans, those people who did not believe in me and immediately wrote me off, and I know that there were a lot of them. They gave me motivation for further action and development. If we talk about the fight itself, then from the first round, I had a plan on how to approach the fight, even there were several of them. If we talk about the whole story, the  preparation for Top 8 finals began three months before our fight. I prepared physically and primarily psychologically. I knew that Rustam was more technical, more experienced and definitely faster at the start, which could be decisive in this fight. I saw how quickly he hooked and defeated players like Dmitry Trubin or Todd Hutchings. Rustam is an athlete who can impose his fight on the strongest hookers in the world, and I knew about it. In short, my goal was not to lose in key positions, but to impose my fight after the start. I tried to catch Rustam in my defensive position, because I had two plans. One is to win, the other is not to lose, and fortunately, the second worked. I think that Rustam, as an experienced athlete, was more focused on how to win, and did not focus on what would happen when he was at a disadvantage. It can also be the cause of his defeat.

Anatomy was also one of the factors, I had the advantage that gave me the opportunity to fight in a way that was very inconvenient for Rustam, but even in this situation he knew how to deal with me.

Did you come up to the fight with the intention of winning or was you surprised by his move?

- I came to the battle after a long three-month preparations, I understood my strengths and weaknesses. My main goal was to test myself in the fight against a world-class athlete. The goal was to impose my struggle, it was possible, and in addition I also won. I had plan B, but, fortunately, plan A worked.

They say that now you have to fight with Tobias Sporrong from Sweden or Dovydas Rimkus from Lithuania to continue to participate in the Top 8. How do you see this and how do you approach these fights?

- I agree with this idea that in order to continue participating in the Top 8 I need to pull with these guys. This fight will take place in a month and a half. If you want to ask how I feel about this, then both athletes showed a very high level on the Zloty Tur. They had second and third places on both hands in the + 105 kg category, so they crave a win. They will certainly be prepared as best as possible, because the chance to participate in the Top 8 is very motivating. I will try to prepare the correct form, the best for this short time. I understand that there will be a difficult fight, of course, there will be no talk of underestimating the enemy. I will do everything possible.

Thanks for the short interview and congratulations again!

- Thank you and best wishes to the fans!

Interview: Paweł Gawenda