Who is Alexander Yakovlev: 15 Facts About the Man who takes on Damien Maia on Saturday

Who is Alexander Yakovlev: 15 Facts About the Man who takes on Damien Maia on Saturday
by Chris Houten - @mrhouts

Professional MMA Career

On Saturday Night Russian Welterweight Alexander Yakovlev will take on legendary grappler Damien Maia, a former Middleweight title challenger turned top 10 welterweight. So who is Alexander Yakovlev, we have put together xx facts about the man who will take on the ADCC champion in his native Brazil. 

Yakovlev was initially expected to make his UFC debut against Yan Cabral on May 10, 2014 at UFC Fight Night: Brown vs. Silva. However, on April 9, Yakovlev was moved to the The Ultimate Fighter Brazil 3 Finale card as a replacement for injured Mike Pierce against Demian Maia.

Yakovlev defeated British slugger Paul 'Semtex' Daley in his last outing to earn his contract with the UFC. The bout took place this past November at Legend 2 in Russia.

Yakovlev's fight with Damien Maia will be his first professional bout outside of Russia with his previous 26 professional bouts all taking place in his homeland.

Yakovlev has only lost once in 5 years. That loss came to current UFC fighter Rashid Magomedov under the M-1 banner.

Yakovlev has finishes 16 of his 21 victories - 8 by submission, 8 by TKO / KO

Championships and Accomplishments

Alexander recently took gold at in the Mens NO-GI Expert Cruiser Weight division at the 2014 NAGA World Championships.

Yakovlev can also count medals at the Russian Freestyle Wrestling Championships, Russian Hand-to-hand combat Championships, and Russian Sambo Championship amongst his accomplishments.

Yakovlev won the 2013 Russian national Hand-to-Hand-Combat champion. He beat Alexei Nazarov, Andrey Koreshkov and Alexander Stetsurenko.

Alexander fought for the M-1 Global Welterweight Championship losing to Rashid Magomedov.

Personal Life

Alexander Yakovlev's nickname is 'badboy'.

Yakovlev grow up in one of Russia's oldest Cities, Veliky Novgorod.

Yakovlev dreamed of being an Olympic wrestler as a child but feel in love with MMA after seeing country Oleg Taktarov beat Tank Abbott at UFC 6.

Alexander Yakovlev graduated from university in 2007 with the rank of the Lieutenant of Criminal Justice. He worked in the Department of Internal Affairs before turning pro.

The Russian has recorded a rap song in his native tongue entitled 'Money Power'. The music video for the song opens with a scene from the movie Scarface and show Yakovlev hitting punching bags throughout the video. You can watch the video on Youtube here.