June has been one of the brightest months for fans mixed martial arts. Three legends at once Russian MMA fight for one month. Fedor Emelianenko will fight Matthew Mitrione on June 24th. Alexander Shlemenko has already fought his fight, having defeated Brandon Halsey by knockout yesterday. Today, another Russian fighter, heavyweight, will enter the ring Vitaly Minakov . Vitaly's rival will be a Brazilian fighter Antonio Silva . The fight will take place within the framework of the tournament Fight Nights Global 68 in sports complex Yubileiny, where the M-1 Global Challenge 79 tournament was held yesterday. Also, within the framework of the tournament, fights Sergey Pavlovich - Mikhail Mokhnatkin, Nikita Krylov - Stepan Bekavach will take place.
Antonio Silva has lost in his last 4 fights. At the same time, Silva spent the last fight in Russia, on November 18, 2016, in a stubborn confrontation, the Brazilian lost by decision of the judges to the Russian fighter Ivan Shtyrkov.
Vitaly Minakov is former champion organizations Bellator in heavy weight. On November 15, 2013, Minakov defeated another Russian fighter Alexander Volkov, taking the heavyweight division title from him. After that, Minakov made one successful defense against the Frenchman Cheick Kongo. Then Minakov stopped performing in Bellator, due to inactivity, Vitaly was stripped of his championship belt and continued his career in the Fight Nights Global promotion.
Vitaly Minakov was born on February 6, 1985 in Bryansk. He is a four-time world champion in sports sambo, a former Bellator MMA heavyweight champion. Represents the Fight Nights Team. During his professional career, Vitaly Minakov had 19 fights. He won 19 victories, including 10 knockouts, 7 decisions of the judges and 2 submissions. Weight - 113 kilograms, height - 188 centimeters.
Antonio Silva was born on September 14, 1979 in Campina Grande, Brazil. He is the first and last heavyweight champion of the defunct EliteXC organization. Antonio Silva suffers from acromegaly, a disease associated with abnormal growth of body parts, which is why he received the nickname "Bigfoot" ( big foot). During his professional career, Antonio Silva had 31 fights, won 19 victories, suffered 11 defeats, 1 fight ended in a draw. The draw against Mark Hunt was subsequently canceled due to Silva's positive doping test.
BROADCASTS OF THE FIGHT VITALY MINAKOV - ANTONIO SILVA
The tournament will be broadcast live fightnights.ru and karate.ru .
Yesterday the weigh-in of the fighters took place. Antonio Silva showed a weight of 130 kg, Vitaly Minakov - 122.1 kg.
Online video broadcast of the fight Vitaly Minakov vs. Antonio Silva will show how easy the Russian hero will pass the elderly Brazilian veteran. You can watch this fight in the current topic of our site.
Vitaly Minakov
Yesterday the Northern Capital hosted one of the most long-awaited events of several recent months. But today, June 2, the stars of mixed martial arts will shine even brighter in St. Petersburg. In the central fight of the next, 68th Fight Nights Global show, the heavyweight Grand Prix final between Sergey Pavlovich and Mikhail Mokhnatkin will take place. In addition, Ukrainian Nikita Krylov, who broke away from the UFC, will hold his first performance outside the octagon in many years. However, perhaps the most interesting confrontation will be a heavyweight clash between the former champion Bellator Vitaly Minakov and Antonio Silva, nicknamed Bigfoot.
Minakov's talent has recently shone in his native Russia, where he had to fight such famous fighters like Peter Graham and DJ Linderman in two extreme confrontations. ex-king heavy division Bellator has long proven that he is a world-class fighter, defeating, among others, Adam Maciewski, Geronimo dos Santos and Josh Copeland. Despite the fact that the Bellator heavyweight class has always been criticized for the lack of a sufficient number of high-class fighters, Minakov during his performances in the company of Scott Cocker can be safely attributed to those athletes whose qualifications have never been questioned.
The Russian scored four victories by knockouts or technical knockouts before he outmaneuvered Cheick Kongo, earning a decision victory in his final fight under the banner of the second largest overseas promotion.
Minakov has the ability to finish a fight in any phase, but it's highly likely that his main weapon against Antonio Silva will be knockout power. Over the past few years, the Brazilian has proven that his chin has noticeably weakened. It cannot be ruled out that this battle will last approximately the same period of time as Alexander Shlemenko's yesterday's fight.
Fight Vitaly Minakov vs. Antonio Silva - June 2 at…
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Two consecutive nights in St. Petersburg are major MMA tournaments. This time Yubileiny will host fights as part of Fight Nights Global 68: three powerful Russian fighters will take part in two main fights.
VITALY MINAKOV (Russia) – ANTONIO SILVA (Brazil)
MIKHAIL MOKHNATKIN (Russia) – SERGEY PAVLOVICH (Russia)
June 2, 2017, Yubileiny Sports Complex, St. Petersburg, Russia
live broadcast on the Match TV channel - at 21:25, on the MATCH! Fighter" - at 19:00
Vitaly Minakov recently celebrated seven years of participation in MMA. During this time, the four-time world champion in combat sambo held 18 fights, in which he won 18 victories: this allows the fighter from Bryansk to remain one of the few invincible top fighters. In ten cases, Minakov won by knockouts: this is how he won the victory in his last fight to this minute, sending the American DJ Lindermann to the canvas on February 23 this year. His rival five years ago was considered one of the strongest mixfighters on the planet: in February 2011 Antonio Silva knocked out for the first time Fedor Emelianenko at the tournament Strike force In New Jersey. But after that, the Brazilian began to rapidly lose ground, suffering 13 defeats in nine fights. Silva suffered his last defeat precisely from the Russian, losing in Yekaterinburg Ivan Shtyrkov.
The main fight of the evening is the duel Mikhail Mokhnatkin and Sergei Pavlovich. Initially, this fight was supposed to take place back in March as part of Fight Nights Global 68, but was canceled due to a personal tragedy in the Pavlovich family. The 24-year-old fighter from the Rostov region does not know defeat and has ten victories in his career. In November last year, Sergei defeated the Belarusian by decision of the judges Alexey Kudina, while Pavlovich won by knockout eight times. His opponent is Mikhail Mokhnatkin from St. Petersburg, who has 12 fights in MMA. The 27-year-old fighter suffered his only defeat in the very first battle of his career, losing Murad Chachanov in December 2010. Since then, he has won nine victories and ended the fights twice in a draw: in the fight before last, he broke the world with the aforementioned Kudin. In the last fight in October 2016, Mokhnatkin defeated Fabio Maldonado by decision of the judges - the same Brazilian who had previously lost to Fedor Emelianenko in a resonant fight a year ago.
Tricolor TV subscribers can watch fights in St. Petersburg in HD format
June 2 in St. Petersburg, within the framework of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF-2017) will be held international tournament in mixed martial arts FIGHT NIGHTS GLOBAL 67, which claims to be the main event in the domestic MMA.
The apotheosis of the evening in St. Petersburg will be a heavyweight super-fight between world MMA stars: Russian Vitaly Minakov and Brazilian fighter Antonio Silva.
Vitaly Minakov (19-0) who did not know the bitterness of defeat throughout his professional career, is well known to the St. Petersburg public and the participants of the economic forum. Exactly one year ago, the four-time world sambo champion defeated the top fighter from Australia, Peter Graham, in a matter of seconds. In 2017, Vitaly had a no less striking, but much more dramatic duel with an opponent from the USA, DJ Linderman. Minakov won this fight by knockout in the third round.
Antonio Silva (19-11-1), nicknamed "Bigfoot", gained worldwide fame after an early victory over mixed martial arts legend Fedor Emelianenko in 2011. As part of his career, the Brazilian has also defeated elite athletes such as Ricco Rodriguez, Andrey Orlovsky, Travis Brown and Alistair Overeem.
For Vitaly Minakov, the duel with Silva will be the jubilee in his career, and perhaps the most difficult. Despite being 37 years old, "Bigfoot" remains a very dangerous opponent with a knockout punch from both hands and high level brazilian jiu-jitsu.
The co-main bout of the evening will take place title fight in the bantamweight (61.2 kg) between an athlete from Slovakia Tomasz Dek and Russian athlete Nikita Chistyakov.
Tomas Dak (16-9-1) last year was remembered for his bloody duel against Vadim Buseev. This fight rightfully became one of the best in Russia in 2016. In the next fight, the Slovak inflicted an early defeat on Alexander Yanyshev, thereby gaining the right to fight for the championship belt.
Nikita Chistyakov (6-3-1), nicknamed "Piranha", had two fights in FIGHT NIGHTS GLOBAL, having won early victories in the first round over Vadim Zhlobich and Zhuman Zhumabekov.
The title fight will consist of twenty-five minutes, after which the audience will find out the name of the first champion of FIGHT NIGHTS GLOBAL in the bantamweight division.
As part of the FIGHT NIGHTS GLOBAL 67 tournament, ex-UFC fighter from Donbass Nikita Krylov will make his debut in the organization, whose opponent will be the popular Brazilian athlete Fabio Maldonado.
The program of the evening at Yubileiny includes more than ten uncompromising fights, with the participation of Russian and world MMA stars.