Bellator shares emotional tribute to Yaroslav Amosov upon return from war (Video)

Bellator shares emotional tribute to Ukraine as Yaroslav Amosov returns from war.

There may never be a story quite like Yaroslav Amosov‘s again.

When Russia invaded Ukraine and incited a war over the land, Amosov, then the Bellator welterweight champion preparing to defend his title in just weeks, dropped everything and returned to his home country in order to join the army in the fight against Russia.

Now, he’s returned to defend his title and hopes to give hope to the people he fought for.

Bellator has released an early sneak peek of a video package detailing his time in the war, unearthing his Bellator belt which was hidden by his mother, and his decision to return, despite the war raging on.

Watch the full video here.

“Once central Ukraine got liberated, and the city I’m from, once that area became free of Russians, I started to kind of feel like I was getting a lot of pressure from my family and from my friends and loved ones,” Amosov told MMA Junkie through an interpreter recently. “They said, ‘Listen, our immediate area is liberated. It’s free. It’s time for you to return to fighting and use your notoriety and your platform to be the voice of what’s going on here, as opposed to being physically boots on the ground. It wasn’t an easy decision. There was a lot of pressure from my family, from my friends. But eventually, I decided that’s what I was going to do.”

Amosov will face the interim champion Logan Storley on Saturday, Feb. 25 live on Showtime.