Jonathan Quiroz unloads on ‘Russian cheaters’ ahead of bout with Khasan Magomedsharipov.
Jonathan Quiroz isn’t a fighter. He’s said it over and over again. He’s a regular guy with a successful business who just happens to like fighting. So when Bellator called him just a week ago to fight at Bellator 263, it wasn’t going to be an immediate yes. He doesn’t rely on the money he makes fighting and isn’t building a career towards a title, it has to make sense for him.
And fighting Khasan Magomedsharipov made sense to him.
“They say ‘you wanna fight’ and I say ‘who?’ They said ‘this Russian’ and I always wanted to fight a Russian,” Quiroz told FanSided. “I feel like people are kind of scared of Russians right now because of Khabib [Nurmagomedov]. They’re just humans like us, when they’re not on steroids, they’re just humans like us. Everyone is kind of scared of fighting Russians, and I wanna fight a Russian. When they said it was a Russian, I didn’t even know his name. I just found out he was Zabit’s brother yesterday. I haven’t even checked his fights; I’m just here to fight.”
Quiroz says he recently watched a documentary about the Russian doping scandal and it gave him the motivation he needed to take on Magomedsharipov.
“I think Russia sees everything that their people do against other countries, it’s like a war,” he said. “I think they have that mentality, they can do anything, it’s a fight, if they can cheat, they’re going to cheat. So since I watched the documentary, there’s no doubt in my mind that a lot of the Russian athletes are on steroids. If your government is supporting you to do steroids, if my government was supporting me to use steroids, I’d be using steroids for sure. I guarantee you that any athletes that the government comes to and tells you, ‘hey, you can use steroids, we’re gonna get you everything, so you can go and not test positive.’ If your government is behind you, it’s like your whole country is behind you. I don’t think it’s wrong; I think it’s just a war. Russia sees everything just as a war, everything that goes against Russia, against their own country, they’ll do everything to make sure they win.”
Despite Quiroz’s firm beliefs about Russian athletes, he wants to make it clear he isn’t accusing his opponent of doping … but he also wouldn’t be surprised if he was.
“They cheat, they cheat. In my head, all Russians are cheats,” he said. “They talk about Mexicans, they’ll say ‘all Mexicans are brown or ‘all Mexicans are the same.’ I’m not saying he’s on steroids, but when your country and your government is supporting you to do steroids, there’s no doubt in my mind that you’ve used steroids in the past. No doubt in my mind. If you got banned by the Olympics. How shameful is that? … They have to be dirty, because if your whole country is behind you doing it, most likely you are on it.
To me they’re just cheats. It’s been proven, they got banned from the Olympics. It’s proven, they’re cheaters. Simple as that. I’m not saying he’s on steroids. But Russians are known to cheat.”
Quiroz hasn’t fought since he faced AJ Agazarm in January 2020. And he hasn’t really needed to either. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t take his performance serious.
“I’m just here for business,” he said. “Obviously, you know me, I’m not gonna let anyone just pass through me. If they win, it’s gonna mean something. I’m gonna get in there and fight. Who it’s against, it doesn’t matter. Just the fact that it’s a Russian. Like I said, since I watched that documentary. Russians man, why do they cheat? I don’t understand.”
Quiroz will face Magomedsharipov on the prelimary portion of the Bellator 263 fight card. Something tells us there will be some drama.