I had the pleasure of meeting Oleg at a seminar hosted at my old kickboxing gym. After watching him shake the ceiling when he hit the heavy bag and seeing him in the UFCs with that "all business" look of his, I was prepared for a gruff, tough, russian.
Boy, was I surprised. He's tough, and russian but he is anything but gruff. He is a comedian, he loves to make jokes. At one point, while he was teaching kneebars, one student asked, "How do you keep the knee from hitting you in the Nuts?"
Oleg thought for a second then told the student to stand in a line with a few others.
He says,"I show you how I learn..(is english was still a little off)...Stand military, you know...(he mimes attention)."
Then he starts walking up and down the line, with his hands behind his back, chest pushed out.... a picture perfect impression of a SGT. inspecting the troops.
"When I learned Sambo, our Instructor would make us stand like this as he talked to us...."
He walks by the guy that asked to question and his hand snaps out, quick but light, and hits him in the groin.
He smiles that big grin of his,"You just learn...."
That is what I remember the most about the class with him. It was only about 15 of us so it was really personal. When I watched 15 minutes it was really neat because it was the first movie I had ever seen that had someone I met in it.
Tony
