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Olena Kolesnyk: ‘I leave my balls on the wall’
The Ukrainian Olena Kolesnyk once again finds herself in the PFL Playoffs, with $1 Million and the Championship an arms length away. But, she is pitted against a familiar foe in last year’s lightweight champion Larissa Pacheco who holds two victories over her.
This season appears to be the best version of Kolesnyk yet, with wins over Aspen Ladd and Yoko Higashi to vault “Cannon” back into the playoff picture.
In her interview with John Shields for Fight Famous, she talked about how men “aren’t manly anymore” and how she has a gay friend that is “manlier than most guys”. I wanted to expand on this topic, and after referencing the interview, she laughed and provided some deeper thoughts on dating men in the modern world…
“Oh my god. Listen, first of all, my friend’s name is Jacob. I love him with all my heart and he was an American soldier, he’s amazing. Recently we watched the Barbie movie which I loved. Anyway, what I love in Jacob is that when he says he will be there he’s there. There aren’t too many men that keep their word unfortunately nowadays. When you’re a fighter and a strong woman physically and mentally, it’s not easy to find the right partner for your life. They look at my job and what I do for a living and they think I’m the same dominant person in real life, and this is attractive to the men who are looking for a strong mother or women.”
“For people who know me well, when I leave the gym I leave my balls on the wall and I become more feminine. I like to take care of my man and make him less stressed and more comfortable – I like to be a classy woman at home but for my job and for my fights I need to wear this mask. Sometimes men take it the wrong way and think I’ll be the same in the relationship but that’s not true; I am totally the opposite”.
She had also spoken about this experience leading to her being single and I wanted to know if the dating troubles affected her emotionally or if she was unbothered by the lack of partners that checked the boxes she needed.
“[My] mindset is that in the right time and right place you definitely will find the right person and the funny thing is there are a few magic words you need to say if you want to fall in love; I will never fall in love again ever. As soon as you say that, it’s unexpected and not predicted and that’s when it happened to me. 3 years ago I told myself my heart is closed and I will not have any feelings and be numb. This year I speak out loud that I need the [PFL] belt and tell all my friends but then you wake up one day that you feel more for one person than you’re supposed to feel and that’s when there’s an alarm. We will see what happens next but right now I feel really good.”
Olena Kolesnyk faces Larissa Pacheco in the co-main event of the PFL Playoffs on August 18th inside Madison Square Garden.
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