Ekaterina Vandaryeva has made some big changes ahead of ONE Fight Night 8. She faces Iman Barlow in Singapore this Saturday and has switched to a different training camp in order to prepare for the contest.
She explains the decision to move to the Gridin Gym which was co-founded by ONE Championship kickboxing star Chingiz Allazov,
“I started thinking, ‘why not do something I’d never done before? Why not change my training routine completely, give it my all, and then win in a dominant manner’. There is a tradition to train in the same club for our entire career, but I realized that without a serious training system, I would not grow. I have my own technique, strength, power, and speed, but I need to grow and achieve more. I decided to give it a go and move to the Gridin Gym.”
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Different level
Vandaryeva suffered a setback when her fight against Supergirl Jaroonsakgym was postponed at the last minute. She had been training at her new gym for seven months prior to the contest and was ready to avenge her controversial defeat to the Thai star,
“It was an important fight (and) I spent seven months preparing for it,” she explained.
She says that the training routine at Gridin Gym, which is also home to Roman Kryklia, was unlike anything she had previously experienced,
“It was hard, it was a different level, a different workload. I had trained differently for so many years until I was 31, and here I had to break myself over and over again.”
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Punching power
She faces Barlow at ONE Fight Night 8 and has a lot of respect for the English fighter by the sounds of it,
“My opponent is the most experienced of us all on the roster. Her record is unreal, she is the most accomplished athlete on the roster.”
That is quite the compliment when you consider Barlow has only won one ONE Championship fight. She did it in style though, knocking out Danielle Lopez in under two minutes last year.
But Vandaryeva believes her punching power will be too much for the experienced English fighter,
“I will rely on my punching power. My opponents are all fast and agile until I hit them. I have the power. My opponent will try to overpower me with kicks, but I hope I am fast and smart enough to handle it.”
