Submit A Fighter
October 13, 2011
Mixed martial artist Misha Cirkunov is considered by many to be one of Canada’s most promising and exciting young fighters. The twenty four year old has only been fighting professionally for two years, defeating Jeff Doyle in his 2010 MMA debut. However, he is no stranger to competing and he is no stranger to winning.
Individual combat sports and martial arts were extremely popular when Cirkunov was growing up in Latvia, and he began training Judo at the young age of ten. Immigrating from the small town of Riga City to Toronto, Canada was quite overwhelming for then thirteen year old Cirkunov. “I was really depressed, I hated it. I spoke no English and I had no friends,” Cirkunov admitted. One day he saw an ad for a Judo club and Cirkunov exclaimed, “My eyes lit up. I smelled the sweat and the mats. It smelled the same as in Latvia. I felt this was my home. This is where I belonged.”
Cirkunov excelled in Judo. He earned his black belt as a teenager and became the Junior National Judo Champion. However, his family did not have the financial resources to send him to him to Judo tournaments. Frustrated and unable to compete, Cirkunov joined his high school wrestling team. He then wrestled on the Canadian National Team and was the Junior Canadian National Greco-Roman Wrestling Champion and also won the Junior National Freestyle Wrestling Championship twice.
The Latvian-Canadian was always big for his age, so in high school he started bouncing at local night clubs for extra money. There he met famed Brazilian Jiu Jitsu trainer Sam Zakula. Zakula offered him the opportunity to train in Las Vegas at Cobra Kai Jiu Jitsu with the likes of Marc Laimon, Joe Stevenson, Jay Hieron, and Jason “Mayhem” Miller.
Cirkunov fell in love with BJJ. “I was still doing a lot of Judo and wrestling but I knew that I wanted to do Jiu Jitsu. I still think its one of the greatest sports ever. It’s so technical and it’s so humbling. It’s like human chess,“ Cirkunov said. He was offered college wrestling scholarships but he chose to pursue his passion and continue to focus on Jiu Jitsu. Cirkunov competed in the ADCC Submission World Wrestling Championships, Grapplers Quest and won the gold medal at the Pam Ams in the no-gi super heavyweight division.
With all of the success that Cirkunov achieved in his wrestling, grappling, and Jiu Jitsu career, he was weary about the transition into mixed martial arts. He confesses, “I wasn’t very crazy about MMA. At the time MMA was still very aggressive and a serious man’s game. I was still young and was a little intimidated by it. But the more Jiu Jitsu knowledge I received, the better I got on the ground. Then I started working my hands and I felt very confident.”
And do not let the fact that Circunov is one of Canada’s premier grapplers fool you into overlooking his standup game. Just ask Ricardeau Francois and Shawn Pauliuk who Cirkunov TKOed in less then a minute. He has been consistently working on his striking and is capable of dishing out some viscous ground and pound. He says, “I’m really passionate about the skill on the ground but now I am really passionate about what you can to do with your hands. I want to not only be able to submit people but hurt people. I want to knock someone out.”
Cirkunov will get that chance on Friday, Oct. 14 when he faces Ray Lopez at the Score Fighting Series in Ontario, Canada. A victory against Lopez will extend his winning streak to four in a row and bring him one step closer to achieving his dream of being a fighter in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He explains, “My whole life I have been watching the UFC. It’s like the NBA or the NHL. It’s the highest league. That’s where you see what you are made of. All of the toughest fighters end up there. My goal is to one day fight in the UFC at 205 pounds.”
6’ 3’ Cirkunov walks around at 220 pounds and currently teaches Jiu Jitsu at Xtreme Couture in Toronto where he trains. MMARanked currently has the grappling prodigy ranked number twelve on the Top 50 MMA Prospects for 2011. He says, “I train all of the time, to get recognition is awesome, but my whole life I have been aiming for that gold medal. Number twelve is nice, especially on such a big scale, but I am aiming for that gold medal.” Many believe that Misha Cirkunov is well on his way to achieving that goal.
Individual combat sports and martial arts were extremely popular when Cirkunov was growing up in Latvia, and he began training Judo at the young age of ten. Immigrating from the small town of Riga City to Toronto, Canada was quite overwhelming for then thirteen year old Cirkunov. “I was really depressed, I hated it. I spoke no English and I had no friends,” Cirkunov admitted. One day he saw an ad for a Judo club and Cirkunov exclaimed, “My eyes lit up. I smelled the sweat and the mats. It smelled the same as in Latvia. I felt this was my home. This is where I belonged.”
Cirkunov excelled in Judo. He earned his black belt as a teenager and became the Junior National Judo Champion. However, his family did not have the financial resources to send him to him to Judo tournaments. Frustrated and unable to compete, Cirkunov joined his high school wrestling team. He then wrestled on the Canadian National Team and was the Junior Canadian National Greco-Roman Wrestling Champion and also won the Junior National Freestyle Wrestling Championship twice.
Cirkunov fell in love with BJJ. “I was still doing a lot of Judo and wrestling but I knew that I wanted to do Jiu Jitsu. I still think its one of the greatest sports ever. It’s so technical and it’s so humbling. It’s like human chess,“ Cirkunov said. He was offered college wrestling scholarships but he chose to pursue his passion and continue to focus on Jiu Jitsu. Cirkunov competed in the ADCC Submission World Wrestling Championships, Grapplers Quest and won the gold medal at the Pam Ams in the no-gi super heavyweight division.
With all of the success that Cirkunov achieved in his wrestling, grappling, and Jiu Jitsu career, he was weary about the transition into mixed martial arts. He confesses, “I wasn’t very crazy about MMA. At the time MMA was still very aggressive and a serious man’s game. I was still young and was a little intimidated by it. But the more Jiu Jitsu knowledge I received, the better I got on the ground. Then I started working my hands and I felt very confident.”
And do not let the fact that Circunov is one of Canada’s premier grapplers fool you into overlooking his standup game. Just ask Ricardeau Francois and Shawn Pauliuk who Cirkunov TKOed in less then a minute. He has been consistently working on his striking and is capable of dishing out some viscous ground and pound. He says, “I’m really passionate about the skill on the ground but now I am really passionate about what you can to do with your hands. I want to not only be able to submit people but hurt people. I want to knock someone out.”
6’ 3’ Cirkunov walks around at 220 pounds and currently teaches Jiu Jitsu at Xtreme Couture in Toronto where he trains. MMARanked currently has the grappling prodigy ranked number twelve on the Top 50 MMA Prospects for 2011. He says, “I train all of the time, to get recognition is awesome, but my whole life I have been aiming for that gold medal. Number twelve is nice, especially on such a big scale, but I am aiming for that gold medal.” Many believe that Misha Cirkunov is well on his way to achieving that goal.
SPONSORED CONTENT