The hard-hitting light heavyweight contender Sergej Maslobojev spoke for the GLORY official website.
The Lithuanian kickboxer has been undefeated for years and tells his plans for 2022.
For those who don’t know you yet, can you introduce yourself ?
First of all, for the people who don’t know me, I don’t know them too. They are missing the show, not me. To be serious, my name is Sergej Maslobojev and my nickname is “Kuvalda”, that means “Sledgehammer”. I am a sportsman and multiple time world champion. I started martial arts when I was only 18. The first time I stepped into the ring, I knew I wanted to do this for the rest of my life. I had a brother who was 7 or 9 years older than me. He challenged me all the time and kicked my ass. But he was always saying “get up and try one more time.” When I was 7 years old, he died, he drowned. So, after his death I started to look for a new inspiration. I knew I wanted to be a fighter.
Where does your nickname come from ?
I was training in a gym. They were playing soccer on the second floor, and we were training on the first floor. In the middle of the gym, there were pillars with a soft exterior so you could hit and kick against them. After our training, we started to do striking against that pillar. When those soccer guys came back from the second floor, they said they thought there was construction going on the first floor. The whole second floor was shaking. Every time I came back there, they were calling me “Kuvalda”.
Can you describe the year 2021 ?
It was a crazy year. I hadn’t fought for a year and a half. I started preparing for a fight in early May, because the fight was to take place in July. Before the fight, they told me that the fight would be rescheduled to September. I had a small break but then I could start preparing again from the beginning. The preparations are very hard because it is two or three training sessions a day. Then a few weeks before the fight, I got injured and broke my toe. Within three weeks I had to recover and after that I could start my preparation again. Then in October I got to fight. A few years ago, when I was watching COLLISION I live on TV, I said “Wow! It would be fantastic to fight in such a big arena.” Two years later I was fighting there. A dream come true. My goal is to become the GLORY world champion now.
In your weight class, there were two title fights in the past year. What did you think of the fights between Alex Pereira and Artem Vakhitov ?
I fought Alex Pereira in an amateur fight in 2013 in São Paulo and I won. Pereira was just a starter, and he wasn’t a big name in the world at that time. Now he is a different fighter and I have chatted with him many times. I really hope that one day we can repeat that match. I’ve seen his growth over the years, and I haven’t stopped either, so I think it’s a very interesting fight. He said the same thing. When I saw the first fight between Pereira and Vakhitov, I thought Vakhitov did more work than Pereira. But maybe the punches of Pereira did more damage. In the second fight, I think Pereira didn’t go there for the win. He just was there to not get injured and do like a training session, before he went to the UFC. Vakhitov tried to give his all in that fight. Vakhitov told me that he expected more from Pereira and that he is not as big a star as everyone says. After the second fight, he proved that.
What was your 2021 highlight outside of kickboxing?
I’m doing a lot of stuff. I’m visiting prisoners, army guys, schools, and addiction clinics. I give seminars and I do it for free here in my country. I’m trying to motivate people by telling them my story. It’s not just some stupid quote from the internet that anything is possible. You just have to believe.
You can find the full interview HERE.
