WFC 15: 'Olimp Sport Nutrition' saw a new World Freefight Challenge Welterweight Champion crowned, as Ivica 'Terror' Truscek stopped Lubomir 'Virus' Gedjev in round two of their bout at the Hala Tivoli. The Croatian Top Team member admits this meant the world to him.

 

"I cried like a little teenage girl at a pop concert when the president of the WFC was putting the belt around my waist, so yeah, it means a lot to me," admitted Truscek, a notoriously hard-as-nails competitor inside the ring.

 

 

"Regardless of my plan to fight for at least ten more years, this could easily be the best moment of my fighting career.

 

"Now, I'm the champion of the best organisation I have ever fought in, the one I had the best fights in and where fans treat me as their own.

 

"On Sunday, Dec. 18, everything was perfect. The Hala Tivoli was jam packed, the fans were crazy, there were a lot of my friends and family there to support me and I finally delivered the goods."

 

Indeed, the contest went in a near-perfect fashion for Truscek, who had a solid gameplan going into the scrap. He noted,

 

"The fight went 90% to perfection. We wanted to keep it on the feet for the most part, defend his takedowns, punish him with ground and pound when possible and escape his submission attempts when he finally got his chance to attack.

 

"That was exactly how it went. I was a bit slow on one or two of his takedowns, but I managed to get back up every time.

 

"My jab basically won the fight for me. In MMA with those thin gloves you still can't knock the guy out with the Jab, but evidently, you can bust him up pretty bad and break his nose.

 

"I was finally sticking to the gameplan, and did not give him even the smallest chance for free. At times, I didn't even want to move, just so he could not get his underhook, let alone go to the position to attack. I did not want to be not 99% safe, but 110% which led to me not attacking with my trademark ground and pound a whole lot, but after it's all said and done, obviously it was the right choice."

 

 

Ivica reckons Gedjev fought exactly how they'd expected him to, and this helped him pull off the masterplan which saw the title go back to Croatia.

 

"He was pretty much what we expected him to be," remarked Truscek. "I knew he could not strike with me, but unfortunatley for him, he didn't. That's because this is the first time in my 20-plus fights that I actually used my boxing to hurt my opponent and not to set up my takedown. I will do more of that in the future, because as much as I love to stand above my opponent and throw hard shots to his confused and panic looking face, having two good attacks will make me exponentially more dangerous.

 

"I think that Lubomir fought as well as he could, but my style was just bad for him. I actually think my style will make problems for most fighters, because I have that unusual boxing stance where it's hard to hit me and hard to take me down, whilst I can hit back and shoot for the fast double leg aswell, and even if they manage to get me to the mat, I'm pretty good at hopping back to my feet."

 

 

So what is next for the new Champ?

 

"The plan is to defend the title in about four or five months, and fight about three times in between," stated the all action 77kg fighter. "I'm not sure who will be the challenger though. I thought it could be 'Želva' since he is one of the most popular Slovenian fighters, but he just lost a fight on the same card so I think he is out of the picture.

Upon being asked what the fans can now expect from him, Truscek retorted,

 

"Just a lot more fights. I will fight like 100 more times and just try to entertain myself and the fans doing it, and make some money too. I'm experienced enough now not to make fights a heavy burden on myself, but just to go with the flow and enjoy what I do. I have fun with everything, form the weigh ins, staredowns, media work, ring walk outs to the fights themselves.

 

"Sometimes, I can't believe that I get paid to travel around the world, all expenses paid, just to try to beat some guy up and get cheered for it by the fans in the arena.

 

"I'm far from your typical 'tough guy cage fighter' in person and outside of the ring, but I can really relate to the line from the fiction movie 'Conan the Barbarian' where he says that the only thing that mattes to him is to destroy his opponent and to hear the crowd roar. Well, that is not the only thing that matters to me with having two daughters of course, but it's definitely on of the top three things in my life and it can't be simulated by anything else, so I want as much of it as I can get."

 

 

To conclude, Ivica had some other things he wished to add.

 

"Let me just say thanks to all of my fans for the great support, the awesome Slovenian crowd who treated me even better than I hoped, my family for letting me do this dangerous sport, the Croatian Top Team for preparing me as well as they did for this fight and anyone else who has ever taught me anything fight related."

 

Keep your eyes peeled on WFC.si for the video of Truscek vs. Gedjev, which will be online in the next few days.