In 2008 Conor McGregor was 2-0 as a professional, and was matched up at Cage of Truth 3 in front of a hometown crowd in Dublin, Ireland with Russia’s Artemij Sitenkov?, a much smaller wrestler. The fight started and 69 seconds later, Sitenkov had won by knee bar. In an interview with Rigan Rahmatulin? for the Russian language Sport.ru, Sitenkov talked about the fight.
“In those days, even if I won, I was supposed to pretend that it was by accident,” said Sitenkov, as translated by Karim Zidan for BloodyElbow. “Otherwise, I would be simply not be invited back to fight in the future. I was good at it. At the time, the Irish didn’t suspect that I was a good fighter, and John Kavanagh, McGregor’s coach, just held his tournaments under the name Cage of Truth. I can even show you a trophy for defeating Conor.”
“It’s a metal one but sounds s—y, which means it was made from the cheapest material. This wreath is from plastic and glued right here and with these twigs and tablet the same story. It’s just cheap Chinese garbage (laughs). For beating McGregor, I got this bowl and 500 euros.”
“(McGregor’s coach SBG-I founder) John Kavanagh thought that McGregor could defeat me. According to his words, I was a fighter who already had experience in overseas performances, was in the rankings and they didn’t have to pay me much. I paid for a ticket from my pocket and flew to Ireland to fight. “
Sitenikov said he knew the weight difference was large, so had to do something unorthodox. At the time McGregor was primarily a striker, so the Russian dragged him to the canvas and kneebarred him.
“[McGregor] cried after the fight,” said Sitenikov. “Kavanagh came to him and consoled him.”
Sitenkov also beat UFC fighter Neil Seery in 2012 via kneebar, in just 55 seconds. But he is 1-7 his last night, and fights at 125, so he doesn’t see a rematch in his future.
” Yes, I defeated McGregor. So what? He was just a teenager,” said Sitenkov. “This fight is impossible now because there are two weight categories between us. He has his own destiny and I have mine. He wins in UFC and I’m happy for it.”
