Yaroslav Amosov made headlines when he withdrew from his title fight in order to join with Ukraine in fighting the Russian invasion. He even buried the Bellator belt underneath his home to keep it safe. Now, he returns from Ukraine to resume fighting, despite the war raging on.
And he explained why.
“Once central Ukraine got liberated, and the city I’m from, once that area became free of Russians, I started to kind of feel like I was getting a lot of pressure from my family and from my friends and loved ones,” Amosov told MMA Junkie through an interpreter. “They said, ‘Listen, our immediate area is liberated. It’s free. It’s time for you to return to fighting and use your notoriety and your platform to be the voice of what’s going on here, as opposed to being physically boots on the ground. It wasn’t an easy decision. There was a lot of pressure from my family, from my friends. But eventually, I decided that’s what I was going to do.”
Amosov will face Logan Storley at Bellator 291 in Dublin, Ireland on Feb. 25 but his country isn’t far from his mind.
“This will leave an enormous scar on our nation,” Amosov said. “This will always be remembered. This will not be something that will be easily forgotten. It’ll carry forever. There’s going to be an impact. Of course, people are optimistic the thing will end at some point, but nobody knows when. This seems it’ll be going on for a while.”
Yaroslav Amosov was urged to return to fighting to ‘be the voice’ of Ukraine
