Alexander Yakovlev has plenty of fighting experience, considering his career spans nearly a decade and 26 fights.

But he is neither old nor slowed by the experience.

“There were many good and powerful fighters in my career,” Yakovlev wrote to MMAjunkie, “but I hope the most significant battles are waiting for me to come.”

In November Yakovlev alerted the MMA world that his future remains bright when he scored a unanimous-decision victory over big-show vet Paul Daley at “Legend – Part 2: Invasion” in Moscow. The 29-year-old St. Petersburg, Russia resident moved his current winning streak to three, improving his overall record to 21-4-1 since his professional debut in February 2004.

Now many around Yakovlev think he’s near his biggest step yet: advancing to a larger promotion and showcasing the talent he has been developing since he started wrestling as a young boy. Getting early inspiration from another Russian fighter, Oleg Taktarov, Yakovlev later started his own training to help him reach closer to the goal of leaving a not-so-pleasant past behind.

Despite the load of fights on his resume and his success, Yakovlev still remains somewhat unknown to U.S. crowds, which he hopes can change soon. His latest fights come at a time when the UFC has involved more Russian fighters in its shows, making their appearances more common.

That bodes well for the current Russian prospects like Yakovlev. And even more so for him, because of his mix of experience but freshness to the larger MMA community.

But reaching that point hasn’t always been easy.

Always active

One of the questions commonly asked of fighters in this column space is about their childhood and family situations, which often provide interesting stories about where they’ve come from or from what conditions they were produced.

For the time being, Yakovlev didn’t wish to elaborate on those details.

“I did not have the happiest childhood,” he wrote. “And while I’m not ready to talk about it yet, I think the time will come when I will tell you everything about my family.”

He grew up in Veliky Novgorod, one of Russia’s oldest cities. He lived there through his first 18 years, which weren’t always happy ones.

His time was instead spent working on two of his main passions, his education and his sporting life. His daily training centered on wrestling, and he regularly had dreams of competing for his country in the Olympics.

“My only activities as a child were going to school and daily training,” he wrote. “I was very motivated since I realized that anything I was going to achieve was going to be done entirely on my own. Plus my time in school and sports helped to distract me from the unfavorable situation with my family and home.”

His training would take on more of a focus during his teen years when he spotted a fellow countryman aiding the early stages of the UFC.

Building a career

Yakovlev was still focused on wrestling when he first spotted his sporting future.

“My first introduction to MMA was in 1997, when I first saw a video tape of UFC,” he wrote. “One fight that impressed me very much was Oleg Taktarov and Tank Abbott in the finals of UFC 6, where Oleg won in a very tough bout and became the champion. So then I thought I would like to try MMA myself someday. In time, the idea became my reality.”

It just took a few years. Yakovlev didn’t begin his MMA training until 2003, when, as a college student, he went into an MMA gym for the first time. One of the coaches there was Andrei Semenov, who was well-known to MMA fans in his country.

It didn’t take Yakovlev long to adapt to the training, and after just a few months he committed to make his professional MMA debut. It came in February 2004, which started a regular stream of bouts. Through all of his fights, Yakovlev still has yet to suffer two consecutive losses.

That helped build his resume with an eye toward fighting in front of larger crowds. He certainly has the experience, so he’s now looking for the next opportunity.

“Like many of the top Russian fighters, I am planning a trip to the U.S. to train with my team at K Dojo Warrior Tribe as soon as possible,” he wrote. “As of today, I have just been ranked as one of the top 5 welterweights in Russia, so I have high hopes.

“I have plans to fight the best to be the best.”

Catching up

Earlier this year, Josh Rettinghouse told us about his history in wrestling, how he advanced to MMA and how he was looking forward to his first fight outside of the Washington state-area circuit. He impressed in that fight, topping former Olympic bronze medalist Alexis Vila by unanimous decision on Oct. 26 at WSOF 6.

The victory was Rettinghouse’s third straight, and it improved the bantamweight’s record to 10-2.

When we talked with him this past month, Kevin Aguilar joked that he had experience chasing after opponents in the past because he had helped his father handle the family’s goats when he was young. His experiences had helped him to a strong start to his career, but he then suffered his first loss on Dec. 6, dropping a first-round TKO to Leonard Garcia in a bout for the vacant featherweight title at Legacy FC 26.

With the loss, Aguilar dropped to 8-1.

Award-winning newspaper reporter Kyle Nagel pens “Fight Path” each week. The column focuses on the circumstances that led fighters to a profession in MMA. Know a fighter with an interesting story? Email us at news [at] mmajunkie.com.