Abu Adabi—Global Combat Championships President Fazan Ali-Khan announced recently that Heavyweight fighter Aleksandr Baranov would be fined 25% of his purse awarded at GCC 8 in his highly-anticipated fight against Ross Hanson due to his breaking of GCC’s COVID-19 protocol. Aleksandr Baranov justified the actions by claiming he was only promoting the fight to “increase subscription numbers.” While the numbers have yet to come in on GCC 8, some defend Baranov’s actions while many, many more condemn them making him the proverbial Big Bad Wolf of GCC.
That doesn’t seem to be the end of Aleksandr Baranov’s woes though. Mr. Khan also announced that Baranov’s membership within House of Khan was placed up to his teammates within the gym. Fazan Ali-Khan had this to say: “As GCC President, I try to stay out of the day to day operations carried out by The House of Khan. However, the gym still carries our family last name and it's important that we maintain our honorable reputation within our own communities. In result, we decided to leave it up to the existing members of the House of Khan to vote on whether or not they wished to continue to train and associate with Aleksandr Baranov. My granddaughter Rupika voted in his favor but she was in the minority.''
So with that, Aleksandr Baranov is out of House of Khan! The Big Bad Wolf is a Big, Bad, Lone Wolf now. I speculate he should be a hot free agent to other gyms despite his vicious tendencies outside of the octagon, but time can only tell whether or not my speculation is true. For now, I think Aleksandr Baranov should focus on finding himself a new gym before taking his next fight in hopes of getting back in the win column.
What’s next for Aleksandr Baranov?
Mr. Khan hasn’t announced anything further for Aleksandr Baranov, but this won’t be the end of him. The man can put on a fight. A loss to Ross Hanson is a minor set-back. In fact, in a few months time Ross Hanson may be taking on the current GCC Heavyweight Champion Alejandro Rivera. With Aleksandr Baranov on the outside looking in, he will need to get back on the winning track. Look for him to get back into the octagon again soon to do just that.
Sean Alexander
GCC Interviewer and Analyst