The FF-Files: Welcome to the Jungle

---

“Welcome to the jungle, we got fun and games. We got everything you want, honey, we know the names. We are the people that can find whatever you may need. If you got the money, honey, we got your disease.” – Guns N’ Roses, “Welcome to the Jungle”

The job of a Fight Finder never ends, as numerous requests come in every single day to the team. Our international staff works assiduously to make certain that event results and fighter records are up to date, and we hear plenty of demands to modify already-recorded results. We conduct investigations into fighters and fight cards, and our process for review is thorough and comprehensive. Decisions to remove fights or alter their status are not taken lightly, and our internal paper trail is extensive.

Sometimes we get wind of malfeasance, informing us that something flew under the radar and should be checked. In the instance we will discuss today, Fight Finder staff received information regarding false fights registered under the Colosseum MMA promotion in Russia. This report included an event titled Colosseum MMA: Battle of Champions 22 on July 25, 2021. Our examination, replete with peaks and valleys, all rolled into one show in Moscow consisting of 40 or so fights. Below is what should have been its entire, abridged recording. The operative word, unfortunately, is “should.”


When people see dollar signs, things get complicated. What once began as a simple relationship consisting of a Colosseum official sending results to Fight Finder started getting fuzzy. More fights would be added to event sheets than actually took place. Suddenly, the same video was submitted as evidence for two different fights. Minor “errors” crept into provided documents, as if to test the attentiveness of our team. More neophytes made their pro debuts only to never be heard from again. Name issues and conflicts of the wrong person marked in competition presented themselves. A few usual suspects cropped up as repeat offenders, and things took a for the worse. Suspicion grew regarding Colosseum selling bout slots to the highest bidder, claiming matches took place under its banner without actually happening. Suffice it to say, a future FF-Files study on this organization as a whole is already in the works. For now, we focus on this Battle of Champions 22 event in 2021, one that allegedly contained future UFC fighter Armen Petrosyan.

The information provided to Sherdog suggested that Petrosyan never faced Alexander Zemlyakov at this fight card. Our own search proved fruitless, in both English and Russian, across the litany of databases, record keepers, news sites, social media profiles and additional sources in the sphere. Practically the only record of the fight actually happening emanated from Sherdog itself, based on the now-questionable results from this official. Several staff members located across the world looked into it, and Petrosyan vs. Zemlyakov was simply nowhere to be found. We even spoke to a top Colosseum official directly about this event and fight, who said, “Armen Petrosyan has never fought in our tournament. I don’t even know who added it there. Most likely someone confused him with someone else.”

It was then that the Fight Finder crew decided a statement should be published on Twitter, as Petrosyan is a high-profile competitor in a major organization. In the interest of transparency, when a Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter competing on an upcoming pay-per-view card’s win-loss tally changes suddenly, we felt it prudent to say something instead of just quietly removing it from his page. Within days, Petrosyan’s management team, Haysport, reached out to Fight Finder asserting an error had been made. Along with their statement, they provided two lower-quality partial videos, including one shot from the crowd, that were edited to remove introductions so we could not see who fought. Understandably, we requested additional evidence. Even we were surprised at what we received next from Petrosyan’s representatives.


Behold, in all its glory: actual, confirmatory evidence. That is Petrosyan, and there he is, winning the fight at Colosseum 22. To all promoters, managers, fighters and any other interested parties, this is what you should always be sending to Sherdog Fight Finder. As we have stressed in past FF-Files pieces, the year is 2022, and the majority of people on the planet own electronic devices that can record video. Moreover, organizers should always record their fights. There’s a good chance that someone will want to see them at some time. In line with its YouTube presence, Colosseum MMA did record the fight, and Fight Finder finally received it, but there was a catch. There’s always a catch.

If one travels to the YouTube page that holds the video, they can see directly under the names of the fighters, the small icon of “Unlisted” in light grey. This means that the video is for all intents and purposes a privately posted video. It cannot be searched by any means; it is unavailable for indexing and not displayed on the company’s channel itself. Additionally, that video designation is not an accidental selection. As it turned out, it was quite intentional.

“Why is the link not public? Because Armen did not want that after losing the belt in one of the best Russian and European organization (AMC Fight Nights), his fans would see him in a not top promotion, and versus a not strong fighter…But we, as managers, wanted Armen to return to the cage as soon as possible after the defeat and regain confidence.”

You read that quote right. The fighter’s management team had enough sway to convince Colosseum MMA to conceal the fight footage, so that he would not be embarrassed by fighting in a lower league against an outsized opponent who had only once seen action as a pro. Ouch. This seemed to hold true, as a normally active social media enthusiast in Petrosyan went suspiciously radio silent on the happenings of his combat career when that contest took place. Even Haysport, an organization that crows about every Petrosyan achievement, no matter the instance, hid the proverbial ball on this July 2021 encounter.

The lone public mention that this fight ever even happened can be found on Colosseum’s Instagram page, but it is not in text and rather a screenshot of a word document of results–thus making it entirely unsearchable, and practically impossible to find unless specifically digging for this result in particular. It is not even on the first image of that linked post itself, but buried five pages in at result no. 42. Pro tip: Do not hide your fights.

As we received a clear, official recording to verify the missing fight, it has been restored on the Fight Finder database. With that out of the way, and all right in the world once again, let’s take a look at the bout itself. It doesn’t last long. In fact, the referee waded in, half-heartedly saying “stop,” at the 14-second mark on our clocks. To put it mildly, this middleweight entanglement does not pass the eyeball test.

The first strike of the fight comes from Petrosyan, in the form of a body kick that hits Zemlyakov’s left elbow and ricochets off to slap the midsection. From there, Zemlyakov retreats while Petrosyan charges, and “Superman” pushes him to the wall and knees him in the left arm. Zemlyakov bends over and slowly lowers himself to the mat as Petrosyan delivers a shade over a dozen of the most ineffectual punches on his downed foe’s guard that one would likely see in professional MMA from a high-level fighter.

That’s it. That’s all it took for referee intervention, thereby adding a tough win to Petrosyan’s ledger over a dangerous and tested opponent. Zemlyakov stands up with a smirk on his face, as if to celebrate his hard work without having to throw a single punch. If we were to quote recent rulings from our friends at Tapology, that match was “Not Hard-Fought to International Standards.” While it was technically a pro MMA fight, and once again part of Petrosyan’s 7-2 professional record…you know what you saw in that cage.

Do you have a dispute with a record or fight result, and have this kind of indisputable yet hidden proof to back it up? By all means, send this information, all Fight-Finder-related requests and any additional fight documentation to [email protected].