Alexander Pavlovich Shlemenko (Russian: Александр Павлович Шлеменко, born 20 May 1984) is a Russian mixed martial artist currently fighting in the Middleweight division for Bellator Fighting Championships. Alexander is an expert in hand-to-hand combat and traditional Kickboxing. He trains at the "Saturn Profi" sports club in Omsk, Russia, and holds a degree in Physical Culture (specialization - Combat Sports Trainer) at the Siberian University of Physical Culture. Shlemenko is ranked as the #8 Middleweight in the world by Fight!Magazine. According to the global-mma.com rankings, he is the number 6 ranked middleweight fighter in the world (outside of the UFC)
As a teenager, Alexander did skiing and Greco-Roman wrestling. At the age of 15, Shlemenko seriously started to train ARB, which is the Russian abbreviation for "army hand-to-hand combat". He competed in many regional and national tournaments in ARB, and got to the highest sport level by reaching the title of "master of sports".