A fight lost in July 2020, another last October, and that’s it. Since then, the 32-year-old from Friborg has become rare in the octagon. “It was not the desire that was missing, but the possibilities, he deciphered. There was the Covid, my current impossibility of having a visa for the United States… For now, we have to focus on meetings abroad and, apart from Abu Dhabi, there is no had a lot. And then you also have to find the right opponent: that has always been a slowdown. But now we are ready to work twice as hard. I’m hot to follow up and demonstrate all the progress I’ve made.”
The Swiss went into exile in Sweden, where he changed his habits quite a bit: “That way I’m 100% in the thing. There are no more friends, no more family around me. On the one hand, it helps. I was able to experience a real period of preparation. I had to be 100% dedicated to my sport. And when you’re at your wit’s end, you need rest. I had never spent so much time on the tatami, in the gym. It will benefit me for this fight. The preparation was excellent.”
He will have to show it on Saturday evening on the great London stage of the O2 Arena, in order to end his “streak” of two defeats. The Fribourgeois needs a success to return to the heights of the light heavyweight category. “It’s always my goal: to get the world title. So there is no choice. For that, you have to face and beat the best”, assures the ambitious Volkan Oezdemir.
