Getty Image
Bellator welterweight champion Yaroslav Amosov is set to defend his title against Michael Page in May, but he currently has a bigger fight on his hands back home in Ukraine.
On Sunday, Amosov uploaded a video stating that he had taken his family to a safe zone and returned to defend his country from the Russian invasion.
Per his #instagram, undefeated @BellatorMMA Welterweight World Champion @YaroslavAmosov is defending his home in #Ukraine 🇺🇦. Stay safe, Dynamo. https://t.co/2XNqXriRss
— Bellator Public Relations (@BellatorPR) February 27, 2022
Video translation via Ringside 24
“Greetings. Probably, many will think that I ran away, I’m hiding, or something like that, but this is not so. I took my family to the safe zone. Now I have returned and will defend this country as best I can, with what I can. I love this country, our own. Russia came to our house and started a war here, many people are dying – innocents, women and children. We have to defend this country, and we succeed, friends. And we will succeed, because the truth is behind us.
I would like to address those who subscribed to me from Russia. What is shown to you on TV, you may not watch – this is not true. If I were you, I wouldn’t even watch your news. We are in a real war. I cannot understand those people who do not believe that Russian troops entered Ukraine. I see it with my own eyes, I hear it. Terrible things are happening here. We can do this.
Friends, unite, help each other, and everything will be fine with us. The truth is ours, and victory will also be ours”
Amosov joins boxers Vasyl Lomachenko and the Klitschko brothers as prominent Ukrainian sportsmen who have stayed behind to defend their country against Russia.