Despite the fact that mixed martial arts gained the greatest popularity in the West, many fights in this area are still interesting in our land. In this regard, their own MMA stars also appear, including Nikita Krylov, a fighter who managed to grow from a regional level athlete to a member of the planet’s most elite promotion. We will talk about this person in detail in the article.
basic information
Nikita Krylov was born on March 7, 1992 in a city called Krasnyi Luch (Lugansk Oblast, Ukraine). At the moment, the athlete's place of permanent residence is Moscow, where he regularly trains at the Industrial Club under the guidance of coach Andreev. The fighter performs in the category of up to 93 kilograms. The young man’s height is 191 centimeters, and the arm span is 197 centimeters. To date, the fighter has 28 fights, of which he lost only 5 (four defeats by surrender and one by knockout). It is noteworthy that all martial arts victories are premature, that is, he never spent all the battle rounds scheduled by the regulation.
The beginning of the sports path
Nikita Krylov is a fighter with great experience. The guy began his martial arts classes at the age of 10 on the advice of his father. The first section of our hero was the Kyokushinkai Karate Hall, where Valery Alexandrov was the head coach. Under the leadership of Sensei, the guy managed to become the champion of Europe among juniors in 2008, thanks to which he received the title of master of sports. And a little later there was a victory at the Donbass Cup among adults. Nikita was offered to go to Tokyo to pass the dan test, but because of financial difficulties, the fighter refused this very tempting undertaking.
Education and work
Krylov Nikita Andreevich graduated as a lawyer at the East Ukrainian National University named after Vladimir Dal. After that, he worked for some time as a miner, and then as a teacher of physical education in a comprehensive school.
Career in the pros
In 2011, Nikita decided to try his hand at MMA. To do this, he moved to Makeevka, where he began to master combat sambo skills. The fighter spent his first mixed martial arts fight in 2012. The debut was wonderful: Krylov knocked out his opponent.
For the first year of performances, the Ukrainian went into the octagon 13 times and only once lost to Vladimir Mishchenko. Their revenge took place in 2013 and Vova turned out to be stronger again.
But after these defeats, Nikita Krylov - a fighter with an iron will - was able to achieve quite significant success: he won the Gladiators FC tournament, during which he demolished two fighters from his path in one evening.
Having 16 fights in his record, Nikita switched to the M-1 organization. It was planned that there he would fight with Magomed Malikov, instead of failing due to Jeff Monson's illness , but the Dagestan was injured, as a result, the Ukrainian fought with Gabriel Tampa. At some point, the German was very close to his victory, but Krylov ultimately managed to literally bomb with the blows of his opponent and to stop the battle due to technical knockout by Gabriel.
Transition to UFC
With his outstanding speeches, Nikita Krylov, whose battle statistics deserved the respect of both spectators and colleagues, managed to attract the attention of the leadership of the largest promotion in the world - the UFC. The fighter signed an agreement for four fights.
In the organization’s cage, the athlete made his debut in the summer of 2013. His rival was New Zealand veteran Soa Palele. The giant from Oceania finished Krylov ahead of schedule. After the battle, the young fighter explained his fiasco by a long flight and excessive nervousness.
But already in the second match in the UFC, Nikita showed that he was not in vain playing in the strongest league in the world. It took him 25 seconds to knock out the sturdy Walt Harris.
In the spring of 2014, the Ukrainian moved to the category below, where in the first battle he loses to Ovins Saint-Prue by suffocating reception. After that, Nikita Krylov (MMA fighter) successively defeated Cody Donovan, Stanislav Nedkov, Marcus Rogerio De Lima, Francimar Barroso, Ed Herman.
Then there was a defeat from Mikhail Tsirkunov, but the head of the promotion still offered the Ukrainian a new contract, which the fighter refused because of the low payment for possible fights.
In early 2017, Krylov signed a two-year contract with the Russian titan of the world MMA Fight Nights.
Character traits
Nikita Krylov is a fighter who is an ardent admirer of the legendary MMA veteran from Kharkov Igor Vovchanchin. At the beginning of his sports career, Krylov was nicknamed Al Capone. However, over time, the athlete took the nickname Shakhtar, thus showing his deep respect for his native land.
The martial artist is an ethnic Russian, therefore he is very sensitive to the armed conflict taking place in the South-East of Ukraine.
By faith, Nikita is an Orthodox Christian. The athlete is married and has a young son.
On the chest of the fighter there is a noticeable tattoo made in the form of a chrysma, and on the right hand is an angel with a cross.