On the 29th of August, Jānis Eisaks and Kaspars Semjonovs released Spēka Podcast with their guest Daņiks Vesņenoks, one of BAZARA 0 Fight Club organizers. During the podcast, all three of them discussed the fresh-off-the-press BAZARA 0 night and Ghetto Fight—two loud events for Latvian combat sports.
Eisaks: Why no tickets?
Vesņenoks: Because I love combat sports. I don’t want to make a business out of it. Business is never entirely clean and pure. I try to give Latvian combat sports everything I can, hoping I can develop it further. I didn’t sell any tickets because I wanted to show we’re not like everybody else. To have serious people inside the building.
I think the only person in Latvia who has hit this kind of statistic for combat sports is Mairis Briedis. We were everywhere in the media, even though we didn’t ask anyone to promote us.
Eisaks: How did the idea come about? It seemed quite spontaneous. The event was actively discussed only about a week before.
Vesņenoks: Our team worked really well. The idea itself, to throw the best fight show in Latvia, came about 2-3 years ago. At that time, I wasn’t ready, so I had to wait on it. Even now, it wasn’t a business move—physically, I lost money, but gained so much more.
Eisaks: Who tuned in more, the Latvians?
Vesņenoks: Yeah, 80% of all viewers came from Latvia. But the vision is global. Future endeavors are all planned for an international level.
Eisaks: How did you come down to the final fight cards?
Vesņenoks: I looked for people who wanted to fight, were ready to fight, and knew how to fight. The problem is that not all fighters are ready to fight anyone. For them, it’s important who it is, and they care about their reputation. That’s normal. I don’t like it, but I’ve just never been like that myself. When I was active, I thought I was weak. Now that I am actually weak, I realize how strong I was. I sparred with UFC fighters… anyone. Didn’t always win, but I kept going anyway. If I had kept going further, maybe I would have achieved what I wanted. But who knows? Maybe it’s not over yet!
Eisaks: What did you focus on more—Latvian or Lithuanian fighters?
Vesņenoks: Latvian. And at this event, I found what I was looking for. That is Ričards Hauberts. I plan to represent him for one year. He’s just 17 years old. I’ll show and teach him what it means to train professionally, provide the training, everything he’d need—food, equipment. He will be given everything to train professionally.
I think he is the most talented MMA athlete in Latvia. I see how he fights. He is a boy from Latvia who can make it to the UFC. But he needs someone like me who knows business and combat sports.
A lot of people didn’t like the refereeing at BAZARA 0. It was my mistake not to tell the audience, but it was discussed with all the fighters prior that we don’t have a referee. We have Elvis Mihaiļenko and we have Daņiks. I told them that we will make the decisions. If we have three rounds and there is no knockdown, it will probably be a draw.
As for Ričards, he lost that fight, and he knows it. We talked about it. But I didn’t want to make him feel like a loser—in a way, he walked out of that fight a winner. To go into the cage against a grown man three times stronger, without any special physical training at his age, and not get knocked out, that’s a victory of its own.
Eisaks: What I liked about BAZARA 0 was the public. Nearly everyone from the sports world—both old-school and current, possibly the up-and-coming. Sinkēvičs, Volkovs, Timofejevs, Hasans, Varnelis… Francis Rozentāls, who ended up making a show out of it.
Vesņenoks: Francis Rozentāls is now on the team! You know what I liked most about him? He came up to me and asked if he could get in. It was a very respectful move, you can’t not appreciate it. Thank you, Francis, for doing that!
I will go to UTMA with Rozentāls. I’ll arrange that he can hop in the ring if necessary. And if Dirkstys wins his fight, I’ll tell Rozentāls to bark up that tree real good.
Eisaks: Dirkstys’ coach said they hate him in Lithuania. Why is that? Nobody really knows.
Vesņenoks: I’ll tell you why. He makes fake content. He talks too much. He fights weak opponents. But the same fake content has brought him good numbers.
Semjonovs: Of course, as a fighter, you lose respect for yourself the moment you don’t accept a fight. You start to be looked at differently.
Vesņenoks: He’s strong, but he doesn’t fight other strong men. It’s not like he has 0 losses—he’s been beat before, he just won’t post it on Instagram. I support him, but I’m being real here.
Semjonovs: When I look at you both, I think you walk a similar path. He is also going toward business.
Vesņenoks: No, he’s going towards the hype. He wants to make money.
Semjonovs: But those are two different things. We see, for example, Čizovs going for the belt. He has a goal—the PFL, the UFC.
Vesņenoks: That’s exactly why I’m working this intensely with Ričards.
Semjonovs: So more on the next topic, the Ghetto Fight event, where your fighter also participated. He did very well! Won the belt.
Vesņenoks: When I offered him the BAZARA 0 Fight Club fight, I didn’t even know he was doing Ghetto Fight. He said he wanted to, his coach said he wanted to, I called his uncle, told him I was worried. I said I’ll take full responsibility and offer support.
I went to the Ghetto, and Hauberts took his opponent out with one punch. It was phenomenal. And the sight I saw afterwards… He walks out, and he’s surrounded by 40 people. I was shocked. I walked over and told him, calm down. When you get your UFC belt, you can parade around. I told him that if everything goes well, he’ll owe me one thing. You know what that is? Respect.
I started at Ghetto Fight myself. I was always really nervous and never got the belt. Manvels is a good man. He’s really trying his best to help young people. He dedicates his whole life to it.
