Russian athletes are always included in the cohort of the strongest in the world. Moreover, it is nationality that plays the key role, since the Russian spirit is the basis of diligent and hard work in training, multiplied by determination and amazing physical data. This article will discuss a person who is not a citizen of the Russian Federation, but at the same time he is a real Russian, only born and living in the Baltic. His name is Konstantin Glukhov. Let's take a closer look at his athletic life.
Birth
The current MMA star was born on January 17, 1980 in Jurmala (Latvia). Konstantin Glukhov early enough showed interest in various martial arts. According to the athlete himself, no one has ever offended him, and with general physical fitness he also had order, and the love of fights arose on its own. Although the guy does not hide, the inner feeling that you need to learn self-defense, he never leaves.
Choosing a sports direction
Initially, Konstantin Glukhov drew attention to boxing, but subsequently he did not like him. But the fighter liked the kickboxing, because there you could actively use your legs during the fight. This nuance played a decisive role, since Kostya was also engaged in gymnastics, and therefore had an excellent stretching and strong body.
Opinion of parents
The athlete’s mother has always been against his hobbies, believing that he should study at the university and get a proper education. As a result, the fighter found a solution that suits everyone: he continued training, and at the same time managed to graduate from the Polytechnic Institute and get bachelor's and master's degrees in programming. Thus, Konstantin Glukhov is a fairly versatile person who breaks the pattern that combat athletes are intellectually limited people.
Kickboxing career
Being in the amateur status, the Latvian has repeatedly won the world championships in both kickboxing and Thai boxing. Having spent sixty fights in the amateur, in 2001 Kostya switched to a professional ring.
In 2006, the athlete, together with his colleagues in the national team, wins the world tournament in the so-called universal battle. After some time, the guy takes part in the tournament under the name Masters Fight Night Heavyweight, where he comes to the final bout.
A year later, Glukhov holds a fight for the world title in Sochi against the representative of Belarus Alexei Kudin. And again, the Baltic loses and gives way to the title according to WBKF.
But the real finest hour came to the Latvian on November 22, 2008. On that day, the athlete was able to consistently knock out three of his opponents and win the world K-1 Grand Prix, which was held in Riga.
In March 2009, Konstantin Glukhov, whose height, weight and respectable statistics, took part in the tournament held in Moscow. During stubborn fights, he eventually lost in the final match to Pavel Zhuravlev and could not try on the belt of the world champion. We will separately indicate the dimensions of Glukhov: his weight is 116 kilograms, and his height is 190 centimeters.
Mixed Fights
Every fight of Konstantin Glukhov is a real show. His fights rarely end with a referee's decision, and therefore he is very interesting to the audience.
The athlete spent his first fight under the rules of MMA on September 16, 2006 against the Finn Backman. The debut for the Baltic turned out to be successful - he won. However, in general, his career resembles a swing swinging from side to side. To date, the soldier has rather mixed statistics. Konstantin Glukhov won 29 fights, but lost 16.
Of the strengths of the athlete, it is worth highlighting, of course, his excellent striking technique. But at the same time, he completely lacks the skills of classical, free- style wrestling or sambo. He is not able to effectively defend himself from the opponent’s passage into the legs; he is very poorly selected from the ground to the rack. However, in fairness, we note that the Latvian is still a very dangerous fighter and was even able to win the Ultimate Cage Fighters Championship 4 tournament, which was held in Vienna in December 2010. This victory filled Constantine’s pocket with twenty thousand euros. Also of the most significant victories of a fighter, it is worth noting his victory over American Kenny Garner and the legend of world MMA Dutchman Valentine Overeem (a brother of no less well-known in the field of mixed fights Alistair Overeem, speaking in the USA). The last victory of the Latvian dates back to May 14, 2016. That day, the fighter won by unanimous decision of the judges Tony Lopez.
As for his personal life, Glukhov married in 2014.
Further career development of an athlete is completely dependent on himself. As he repeatedly said in his interviews, his ultimate goal will be moving overseas and speaking in leading world promotions such as UFC, BELLATOR. In his personal opinion, it is in these most powerful sports organizations that you can truly grow in the skills of a warrior, gain worldwide fame and recognition, and earn big money.