LAS VEGAS – Longtime fighter Aleksei Oleinik acknowledges the sport has drastically changed throughout his career.
The 75-fight veteran who made his pro debut nearly 25 years ago has seen it all inside the cage. In an era when fighters aspire to trash talk and net blockbuster pay-per-view numbers, Oleinik says it was a lot different when he first started out in the sport.
“I am a long time in this world and I see, I look, I watch this sport change every year,” Oleinik told MMA Junkie at Wednesday’s UFC on ESPN 25 media day at the UFC Apex. “When we start fighting, not any trash talk, not any haters, not any social media.
“When we start fighting, (we had) Royce Gracie, Mark Coleman, Dan Severn and Oleg Taktarov – terrible, strong and brutal guys. They don’t speak. They only crush everybody, everything around them. Now we have a super many everything: This is social media, this is video, picture, many, many trash talk, big army fans, everything.”
Oleinik (59-15-1 MMA, 8-6 UFC) meets Serghei Spivac in Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 25 co-main event, and just like he has throughout his career, he plans on letting his fighting do the talking.
“My times, when real men, brutal men, don’t need to talk a lot,” Oleinik said. “I need to fight a beautiful fight. I need to show a brutal fight. I don’t need to talk, talk, talk. Maybe this is not bad. I can’t change time, but I can change myself.”
UFC on ESPN 25 takes place Saturday at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The card airs on ESPN2 and streams on ESPN+.
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