“It’s my job and how I should know that I do my job (well) is the fans,” Donchenko said. “I can see their reaction: if they love it, they love how I fight, they wait for my fights, it means I do my job pretty good. That’s why it’s important to me is because I want to do my job really good, and I want to keep rising, going higher and higher. Highlights is one of the ways I can go there faster, so I should create more highlights.
“If I will fight — not maybe with this opponent, because this opponent, I should beat him with one eye closed,” he said. “But maybe if I fight with someone, top 15 or my level opponent, for me, I prefer to do Fight of the Year, take the bonus, but I will lose this fight more than I will fight, and people will ‘boo’ all of the fight, but the matchmaker will hate me.”
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So it goes: highlight reel win, Fight of the Night loss, and then everything else, with a tepid, uninspired victory resting at the bottom of the hierarchy and standing in direct contrast to the way the emerging welterweight wants to fight.
And after putting in a full training camp at Tiger Muay Thai alongside headliner Rafael Fiziev, Donchenko is eager to get back to his vicious, menacing ways on Saturday when he welcomes Berggren to the biggest stage in the sport.
“I feel much better with the weather, recovery, training,” he said. “I was there the past four years, and I know everything. I feel a really big difference when I prepare in Vegas than when I prepare in Thailand. I did more hard training in Thailand, and I feel fresher, so it’s good for me in Thailand.
