Aleksei Oleinik

Aleksei Alexeyevich Oleinik (born June 25, 1977, as Oleksíy Oleksíyovych Olíynyk) is a Russian mixed martial artist and combat sambo fighter who fought for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, competing in their heavyweight division.

He began his professional fighting career in 1997, and is a veteran of M-1 Global, ProFC and IAFC and has competed for Bellator, KSW and YAMMA Pit Fighting.

He is one of only two fighters to win a UFC fight via Ezekiel choke, and has done so twice.

Oleinik also holds the record for most Ezekiel choke wins in MMA competition, with fourteen.

Oleinik represented Russia for the Imperial Team in the M-1 Challenge 2009 season, where he defeated Sang Soo Lee.

Alexey has highly regarded submission grappling skills which he developed from his background in training in traditional Japanese jujutsu and competition in Combat Sambo.

He fought Robin Gracie trained Spanish BJJ black belt Rogent Lloret in a fight that ended in a draw.

After his loss to Chris Tuchscherer he went 12 fights without a loss.

That streak came to a halt when he lost via TKO in the first round against Michal Kita at the ProFC Heavyweight Grand Prix 2009.

In the summer of 2010, under the tutelage of K-Dojo Head Coach Murat Keshtov, Oleinik participated in the inaugural heavyweight tournament for Bellator Fighting Championships.

He faced Mike Hayes in the opening round and won the match via a split decision.

In his next bout, he was stopped in the semi-finals by Neil Grove.

He lost via TKO, the referee stopped the fight at 0:45 of the opening round.

During his training camp with K-Dojo Warrior Tribe in April 2011, Oleinik participated in two Grappling tournaments, he won the Absolute division in an Eddie Alvarez hosted grappling tournament, and also won the Men's black belt No-Gi Advanced Super weight (210 lbs and over) division in the Grapplers Quest "Beast of the East 2011" tournament.

In November 2013 Oleinik announced that he signed a contract with the UFC, and was expected to face Jared Rosholt on January 25, 2014, at UFC on Fox 10.

However, Oleinik was forced out of the bout with an injury and Rosholt was pulled from the card altogether.

In his debut, Oleinik faced fellow newcomer Anthony Hamilton on June 28, 2014, at UFC Fight Night: Swanson vs. Stephens.

He won the fight via scarf hold headlock submission early in the first round.

The rescheduled bout with Jared Rosholt took place on November 22, 2014, at UFC Fight Night 57.

Oleinik won the fight via knockout in the first round.

The win also earned Oleinik his first Performance of the Night bonus award.

In an interview on September 9, 2015, Oleinik indicated that he had been sidelined by multiple knee surgeries and subsequent rehabilitation.

Oleinik said he has no intention of retiring and expects a possible return sometime in the middle of 2016.

Oleinik next faced Daniel Omielańczuk on July 13, 2016, at UFC Fight Night 91.

He lost the fight via majority decision.

Oleinik next faced Viktor Pešta on January 15, 2017, at UFC Fight Night 103.

He won the fight in the first round via Ezekiel choke, the first in UFC history and was awarded a Performance of the Night bonus.

In unbelievable circumstances, it was executed while in Pešta's "full mount" position, where it is very rarely seen executed without the usage of a 'gi.

However, the Ezekiel choke technique was not new to Oleinik, who had already won 12 fights by the same submission earlier in his career.

Oleinik faced Travis Browne on July 8, 2017, at UFC 213.

He dropped Browne with a right hook in the first round and showed his superior grappling when he won the fight via submission, due to a rear-naked choke (with a modified grip and without a complete full back mount) in the second round.

Oleinik faced Curtis Blaydes on November 4, 2017, at UFC 217.

The referee stopped the fight in the second round after Blaydes delivered an illegal kick to a downed opponent and called a doctor to check on Oleinik.

The fight was stopped due to the doctor's advice.

The replay, however, showed the strike did not deliver significant damage (as it only grazed the ear), and the fight was ruled a TKO win for Blaydes.

Oleinik made his return to grappling in a superfight against multiple-time World Champion Gordon Ryan on December 12, 2019 at Quintet: Ultra.

He lost the match quickly by kneebar.

Oleinik originally started MMA to prove himself to be strong.

“I just wanted to prove to myself and others that I could be strong, to protect yourself and others.

Then, it turned out that I do it very well, and became my profession.”