Sasha Palatnikov Aims for “Dog Fight” vs Raymond Daniels
Sasha Palatnikov tests skills with Raymond Daniels at Karate Combat 39 on May 20th.
Palatnikov appeared once again on Bowks Talking Bouts to discuss this massive replacement opponent being set up, the thorough insights Palatnikov has on RD, and so much more. Excerpts from our chat are below.
Sasha Palatnikov
Raymond Daniels has a proven resume and an incredibly exciting style. This opponent seems to have more combat cache than your previous opponent. Did this Daniels replacement situation work out for you for the better?
“Oh absolutely. They upped my pay, you know. They made sure to take care of me knowing that I’m fighting someone like Raymond Daniels. Which to me at the end of the day, I’m gonna take that fight every single time. I mean this is a guy that I’m a fan of. This is a guy that I’ve watched throughout my career. We were in the same corner my debut in Karate Combat. So we were able to talk to each other and watch each other hit pads and train.”
“So there was a good likelihood that we may cross paths even though he was in a lower weight class. But I know he had fought at middleweight. So yeah, I mean he had also issues himself getting an opponent. So, it just kind of matched up for them. Of course, Karate Combat matchmakers loved the proposition of us two competing against one other. So yeah, I guess it was a no-brainer. It worked out for everybody and, yeah, here we are.”
Karate Combat 39
Is RD a difficult guy to game plan for considering his wild stylistic attributes with minimal tells, multi-rotation spin maneuvers, uncorking techniques that have seemingly never been seen before in competition, etc?
“My whole fight kind of mentality is I don’t like to game plan too much for my opponents. I watch them. Someone like Raymond, I’m very well versed in his style. I’ve watched every single one of his fights even before this match-up. But I watched his last two fights in Karate Combat. As with any fighter, you do a little bit of digging. You look at who they fought and their record and such. Obviously, Raymond’s biggest highlight knockout which some consider like the biggest knockout in MMA history. You know exactly which one I’m talking about, I mean he fought a debut.”
“A guy that has no fight experience and he hasn’t fought again ever since. So it was also like they just gave him a lamb for the killing. I’m not going to look past that. Again, that knockout was incredible. I wish I could accomplish something like that in my career. But at the same time, I look at levels. I look at the people that he’s fought. Back in 2015, he lost twice to Nieky Holzken. Nieky’s someone that I’ve trained with as a teenager in Holland. Is someone that I’m a big, big fan of watching and actually back then was watching that fight live as a fan of both fighters. So I’ve watched Raymond for a long, long time.”
Karate Combat
“Not only that, just being able to see him compete against (Rafael) Aghayev on that last card and watching his fight with (Franklin) Mina. I definitely see some ways, some holes. I see some areas, some avenues that I can take advantage of. I believe that I’m gonna be able to take advantage of those come May 20. Guys usually that have that style, very flashy, they need space. They need a lot of space to operate in. I’m a very big pressure guy. Like to put a lot of pressure and I like to turn it into a dog fight.”
Palatnikov continued, “I feel like for this fight, if I turn it into that, it’s going to make him uncomfortable. I feel like he doesn’t like to be uncomfortable. He was very frustrated against Aghayev. When things don’t go his way, he starts to get in his head a little bit I’ve noticed. So, I feel like giving him certain looks and certain kind of strategies in the fight are going to work in my favor.”
