5 Things You Might Not Know About Kirill Grishenko

Kirill Grishenko accepted an assignment others on the One Championship heavyweight roster might have been tempted to turn down. Perhaps fortune does favor the brave.

The imposing Belarusian will confront undefeated submission grappling savant Marcus Almeida in a One on Prime Video 1 co-feature this Saturday at Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang, Singapore. Grishenko finds himself on the rebound for the first time. The 31-year-old last competed at One “Bad Blood,” where he failed in his bid to capture the promotion’s interim heavyweight title in a second-round knockout loss to the unbeaten Anatoliy Malykhin on Feb. 11—his first setback after a 5-0 start as a pro.

As Grishenko moves closer to his forthcoming battle with a multiple-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion, here are five things you might not know about him:

1. He shares in a combat sports lineage.

Grishenko was born on July 12, 1991 in Minsk, Belarus—the 11th-most populous city in Europe and hometown of former Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight titleholder Andrei Arlovski, onetime Olympic gold medalist Oleg Karavayev and two-time K-1 World Grand Prix winner Alexey Ignashov.

2. A familiar hammer and anvil shaped his formation.

The 6-foot-4 heavyweight was a two-time European champion in Greco-Roman wrestling and later spent time coaching Olympic hopefuls from his homeland at the Olimpiyskiy Sportivnyy Kompleks in Minsk.

3. Stacked decks are no deterrent.

Grishenko drew One Championship’s attention by winning a one-night heavyweight tournament in the New Fighting Generation organization on Nov. 28, 2020 in his native Belarus. He put away both Vladimir Davidovich and Ahmed Al-Rubaye inside one round to emerge from the competition with his hand raised.

4. He prefers the Han Solo approach to oddsmakers.

The Belarusian made a splash in his One Championship debut as a massive underdog when he upset Oumar Kane—a previously unbeaten Senegalese wrestling star—at One on TNT 4 in April 2021. Kane, who entered as high as a -600 favorite on some books, bowed out to a combination of punishment and exhaustion after the second round.

5. Judges can usually relax with his involvement.

Grishenko has gone the distance only once in his brief but eventful six-fight career. He laid claim to a unanimous decision over former Battlefield Fight League champion Dustin Joynson at One “NextGen” on Oct. 29, 2021. The combined time of his five other matches amounts to less than 24 minutes.