Rolan ZINNATOV: “Winning quickly is great – but overcoming yourself is a different feeling entirely”

Rolan Zinnatov claimed victory at the World SAMBO Cup in the under-71 kg weight class in Combat SAMBO. The competition was held in Yerevan, Armenia's capital. Speaking after his final bout, he admitted the tournament had been anything but easy – a grueling travel schedule, a hand-to-hand combat event the day before, and lingering injuries all took their toll. The Russian athlete shared his thoughts exclusively with the FIAS website.

You must be pleased with the result today.

– Genuinely, yes. But today's bouts were brutally tough. I came here straight off another tournament, spent the entire night on a plane, landed in the morning, and honestly had no real chance to recover – physically or mentally. I was running on empty.

What tournament were you coming from?

– A hand-to-hand combat competition.

That's quite the back-to-back.

– It really is. The long flight, the emotional drain from the previous event, the lack of recovery time – I came into today feeling hollow. I was going through the motions out there, without my usual fire.

One moment I'd love to zero in on is the final. Your opponent, Turkmenistan's Kerim Kerimov, struck me as someone with almost superhuman endurance. No matter what submission you went for, he just absorbed it with this extraordinary, almost primal willpower – in the best sense of the word. There were moments where most fighters would have tapped, and he simply didn't. Was that your read on him too, or does it look different from inside the fight?

– No, you read it right. He's a very worthy opponent – young, incredibly strong-willed. His resilience genuinely caught me off guard. Tactically, he barely engaged in the stand-up at all. The moment I'd grab him, he'd curl up tight and go completely defensive. On top of that, I jammed my fingers in a grip during the final, which stopped me from finishing a technique cleanly. I switched to a leg lock after that, but if I'm honest, by that point I was more focused on running out the clock – I just didn't have the gas left for one last big push.

I think just before that, there was another hold where he managed to slip free. You seemed to be going for a triangle choke with your legs?

– Exactly – a triangle. I put absolutely everything I had into that one. He still got out.

He escaped from that too?

– He did. Incredibly tough guy. On the leg lock, I could hear his joint cracking – clearly audible – and he still held on until the final whistle. That takes an enormous amount of willpower, and a burning hunger to win. Young athletes often have that in spades – the drive sometimes outweighs everything else.

It really does feel like a triumph of the human spirit. Pure, unbending will.

– No question. Willpower and an absolute refusal to quit.

Which of today's bouts was the hardest for you?

– The semifinal against Andrii Kucherenko, without a doubt. He's a very strong, very capable competitor – nothing but respect. Everyone I faced today brought a high level, but that match had a particular edge to it, a psychological charge. A lot of that came from wanting to get revenge – he'd beaten me at the World Games in China, and I wanted to put that right. Purely sporting motivations, nothing personal.

Looking at you now, the physical toll is obvious. Does that make the win taste even sweeter? A victory earned through that kind of adversity seems like it must mean something more.

– You're right, the damage added up: the finger, my nose took a knock, and my leg was banged up from the very first fight – thankfully the knee is fine, but the muscle swelled up and every touch sent a sharp pain through it. I was already carrying some injuries from an army training camp before the tournament started, and everything just got worse here. That said, you have to understand the context: hand-to-hand combat and Combat SAMBO are different animals altogether.

Combat SAMBO is significantly more brutal – especially at the international level, where you're up against the best each country has to offer. Winning under these conditions, in this physical state, makes it doubly meaningful. Winning easily is great, don't get me wrong. But when you have to fight through your own body, push past pain and exhaustion and still come out on top – that's a completely different feeling. That's when victory is truly sweet. All things considered, I wouldn't call today's performance extraordinary, but I'm genuinely proud of it.

In a real sense, you beat yourself just as much as you beat your opponents.

– Exactly. And there was a lot of hype around the Kucherenko semifinal – people had been anticipating that matchup. That added another layer of pressure, I think for both of us.

How did you find the tournament overall – the organization, the level of competition?

– Everything was excellent. The competitive level was high throughout, and the organization was first-class from the moment we landed right through to the final bouts. Very professional, very well run.

You're on top today. What's next?

– Recovery, first and foremost. I'll get the injuries treated, and for the next two to three weeks I'll restructure my training – cutting out sparring and groundwork, focusing on general conditioning instead. I also need a mental reset. After this stretch of hard fights and competition, I need to let everything settle before I shift into focused preparation for the World Championship.

So the World Championship is the next big target?

– That's right. This World Cup served two purposes – it was a crucial dress rehearsal for the main event, and a chance to collect ranking points. The World Championship draw is now seeding-based, so my goal is to accumulate as many points as possible, get seeded, and avoid the top contenders in the early rounds.