Large-size boxing: what awaits the viewers of "Fight Club REN TV"

In the evening of December 13 in Moscow will be held tournament "Fight Club REN TV", in the main event of which Vitaly Minakov will fight with Kevin Johnson under the rules of boxing. An interesting boxing match is also planned in the co-main event: WBA Asia champion Alexey Papin will fight former UFC fighter Greg Hardy. We tell you about these and other fights, which will be held on Friday at the arena "Megasport".

Vitaly Minakov vs. Kevin Johnson

Legendary Russian heavyweight Vitaly Minakov will make his professional boxing debut. He is well known to mixed martial arts fans: he was Bellator champion, defeated Alexander Volkov in a title fight and is rightfully considered one of the best fighters in the history of Russia. In recent years, Vitali has not been so active: the last fight it was in MMA he held in 2021, losing to Said Souma due to a finger injury - the referee stopped the fight, although Minakov was ready to continue. In August this year, Vitaly returned and tried himself in a boxing match, but with small gloves. It turned out to be a difficult fight with Oli Thompson, but the Russian won.

In professional boxing Minakov will meet Kevin Johnson. The American, who not so long ago received a Russian passport, has a busy career. Johnson has fought such titans as Vitali Klitschko, Tyson Fury, Dereck Chisora, Anthony Joshua, Andy Ruiz, and others. Johnson's previous bout was against Irishman Sean Turner from Conor McGregor's gym and won convincingly by knockout.

- When they first talked about this confrontation, of course, I had an unequivocal answer that I'm not a boxer and it's not quite reasonable to go up against a professional boxer," Vitaly Minakov said in a conversation with Izvestia. - But we talked with my team, I watched Kevin's fights and realized that in principle why not to make this challenge to myself. I feel that there is a slight irony from friends, comrades, colleagues. But this spurs me to once again refute skepticism and doubts about what I am capable of. So I am determined only to win.

Alexey Papin - Greg Hardy

Alexey Papin can be considered the best heavyweight from Russia - before the sanctions were imposed, he was ranked number one in the WBA rankings. Now Alexey holds the WBA Asia belt, and his team says that the next step will be the WBA Gold title. Papin has had 20 professional fights, winning 18 of them. The Russian lost his fight against Ilunga Makabu, and the fight against Soslan Asbarov was ruled a no contest. Alexey's previous fight was in August 2024 against Felix Valera and knocked out his former opponent Dmitry Bivol in the fifth round.

Papin has an unconventional opponent this time around. Greg Hardy will have only the fourth professional fight in boxing - the previous three he won. Hardy is better known as a UFC fighter, where he lost to Alexander Volkov, but lasted a full three rounds with him. In total in the UFC, Hardy has five wins and seven losses, and will now fight Papin in boxing. Alexey is considered a serious favorite, but Hardy has an advantage in the form of his dimensions: before the fight, the scales under the American showed 146 kg, while the Russian weighs 101 kg.

- This time, unfortunately, the preparation was less than usual due to certain reasons, but still I had a good sparring session, - Alexey Papin shared with Izvestia. - As for Hardy, I have experience of beating the big guys. In my kickboxing career I had a fight with an opponent who weighed 139 kg. Then I managed to win and even send my opponent to knockdown. However, in that fight it was allowed to hit with knees and legs. Let's see how it will be this time.

Sergey Kuzmin vs. Solomon Adebayo

Kuzmin is a well-known Russian heavyweight, a teammate of Dmitry Bivol and a disciple of Gennady Mashyanov. The 37-year-old Kuzmin's professional record is 19 wins and two losses. Kuzmin won 14 fights ahead of schedule. Also Sergey twice claimed the WBC International heavyweight belt, but the first fight against Amir Mansour was recognized as failed, and the second attempt turned out to be a controversial defeat from Martin Bakole. Kuzmin's previous fight was in the summer of 2023 against German Garcia Montes and he won in the eighth round.

His opponent will be Nigerian Solomon Adebayo, who came out on short notice after Murad Khalidov withdrew from the fight. Adebayo is a powerful and undefeated knockout artist, with 13 of his 14 wins ending early. Solomon's last fight was against Lucas Ndafoluma of Namibia - the fight ended with a knockout in the first round.

Vadim Musaev vs. Rai Seitzhanov

Musaev is a Russian professional boxer with a perfect record of 10 wins in 10 fights. The 31-year-old Russian's last fight took place on August 8, 2024 against Namibian boxer Paulus Amawila. The fight in Ufa ended already in the fourth round, and during the fight Musaev managed to send his opponent to knockdown four times. At the moment Musaev is ranked fifth in the Boxrec rating among Russian boxers of the first middleweight category.

His opponent on December 13 will be Kazakhstani boxer Rai Seitzhanov. He is also unbeaten, he has 11 victories in his professional career. And seven of the last eight fights he won early and no later than the fifth round. In the previous fight Seitjanov knocked out the representative of Tajikistan Akbarjon Nazarov in the second round.