I think Vitaly (and I know I'll get laughed at by many for saying this) is the 2nd most talented HW in the world behind Stipe. His Sambo is NASTY. He also has very good hands and moves very, very well for a HW. Heard from numerous training partners that he's freakishly strong too. UFC needs to sign this guy and get him on a bigger stage! Check out the first throw! Lol This content is protected
I always hoped Minakov would relocate over here with a strong team like AKA where Ruslan Magomedov and Khabib train albeit part time. Unfortunately I think the ship has sailed on him. MMA seems more like a hobby and a way to supplement his income. Too bad because there is as much potential with him as anyone out there. I know Minakov had a SAMBO background but basically all of Russia's top wrestlers do not even try MMA. khabib was a lousy freestyle wrestler in relation to other countymen at the time he trained in their system yet he ragdolls people now. Yoel Romero is considered to have the best wrestling in MMA but got beat by several Russians while he competed in freestyle. Go to YT and type Yoel Romero wrestling against Russians. The top Iranian wrestlers do not go anywhere near MMA either.
Man I hope Minakov changes his motivation toward MMA and climbing the ranks. The guy can go as far as he wants. Yeah I've seen the Yoel videos against top Russian guys and he got dominated pretty good in a few of them! Wonder if Kyle Snider will give MMA a go! He'd be a force I bet
He's the total package. Fast hands, KO power in both, granite chin(Kongo unloaded some BOMBS on him that would have KO'd any glass jawed fighter), good wrestling/sambo/judo, great offensive submission attack in the vein of Fedor. A shame he's going to waste currently.
Man if he zoned in and got with AKA or another top notch camp... he'd go all the way. I hope he starts a more intense path towards the top. But yes currently he's wasting his talent
