“It just happened by chance. It all kind of fell into place. My coach decided to go to Russia and coach there, so I didn’t lose myself. I quickly regrouped and found a new coach, a really big specialist, somebody who completely and totally changed my approach to training, somebody who made me stronger in my punching and my striking [and] somebody who improved me in a lot of areas I was lacking in. I feel much better prepared, and we’ll see what happens on Saturday.”
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Not only did his head coach part ways, so did the entourage of supporters that were behind him throughout his career. Despite suffering just his first loss in 17 fights, the loss showed Romanov the true colors of some of his followers. In the seven months since that bout, “King Kong” filtered out those who were only alongside him for the success and not the adversity.
“In Russia, we have this saying that, ‘Victory has lots of parents while defeat is an orphan,’ so you really understand who the people are who want to stay with you and who [don’t]. You understand which people you want to keep around and which not. After that loss, a lot of people who were kind of fillers, they fell off. People who weren’t real and weren’t there for me. The only people that stayed are the true ones; my family, my [new] team and the support of my country that I really feel are still behind me and for that I’m very thankful. So, now it’s easier for me to breath, easier to move forward because I don’t have any distractions from the people who are not really there for me.”
