By Alexey Sukachev

Newly crowned WBA (“regular”) heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin (22-0, 15 KOs) will be the star of a scheduled press conference, which is penciled to take place at VGTRK media centre on Monday, September 5, in Moscow, Russia. The WBA belt will be presented while Alexander is going to answer questions about his present status and about his possible fights with Wladimir Klitschko and Evander Holyfield. Credentials can be requested by the phone: +7-926-7559094. The presser starts at 2:45 PM LT.

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On September 1, tickets for the first ever local world title fight in Russian history were put on sale. Three and a half weeks later, on Sep. 25, WBO middleweight champion Dmitry Pirog (18-0, 14 KOs) faces his mandatory and fellow countryman Gennady Martirosyan (22-2, 11 KOs), who is rated #1 by the WBO. The fight is scheduled to take place at Olympic Sports Arena (3700 seats) in Krasnodar, Russia, which is a backyard of the champion.

Ticket prices vary from 500 rubles (around 17 USD) to 30000 rubles (more than 1000 USD).

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On October 1, Barnaul local promoter Petr Rubtsov and top Russian boxing impresario German Titov will unite their efforts to stage a nice-looking little show at the city’s Sports Palace. Four fights and two minor titles are scheduled to be at risk.

In the main event, Russian light middleweight title Pavel Mamontov (4-1-1) will put his title at stake against young kayo artist Felix Amoev (3-0, 3 KOs). Super middleweight gun Maks Limonov (16-0, 8 KOs) clashes against tough-as-nails Karen Avetisyan (3-3-1, 1 KO) for a vacant WBC Asian Boxing Council 168lb belt. Both fighters fought each other in late May, and Limonov was rather lucky to squeak with a close unanimous decision despite a knockdown in the closing round.

Local favorites Rudolf Asaturyan (8-5, 4 KOs) and Vyacheslav Yakovenko (7-16-1, 3 KOs) will be featured in separate fights.

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WBC #14 ranked welterweight Anton Novikov (21-0, 8 KOs) will come back after a leg injury on Friday, Sep. 16 at Torwar Sports Hall in Warsaw, Poland. Novikov takes on Georgian David Makaradze (17-6, 8 KOs) for a vacant WBC Baltic title.

In the main event, Pawel Glazewski (15-0, 4 KOs) will try to pass the sternest test of his career against dangerous Frenchman Doudou N’Gumbu (26-2, 11 KOs) in a WBC Baltic Silver title collision. However, possibly the most appealing contest of the night will be fought between former heavyweight world title challenger Albert “The Dragon” Sosnowski (46-4-1, 28 KOs) and unheralded Croatian Ivica Perkovic (15-12, 11 KOs). This bout is scheduled for six rounds.

Prospects Krzysztof Cieslak (16-2, 5 KOs) and Krzysztof Zimnoch (6-0-1, 5 KOs) will be featured in separate bouts. Tomasz Babilonski and Andrzej Wasilewski will promote an entire event.

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In an interesting twist of political palette, little-known Azeri fighter Agaly Alyshev (15-5-2, 12 KOs) takes on equally little-known Georgian Nugzar Magrvelashvili (21-11, 9 KOs) for a vacant EBA lightweight title at Olympic Palace in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.

The fight will be held… today, around the same time Vic Darchinyan makes his long-awaited homecoming just a couple of hundreds kilometers to the West. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan are known for a series of bloody conflicts and long-time guerilla warfare in Nagorno-Karabakh, which lasted for more than ten years.

“It’s just an accident, and we have never meant to provoke any ethnical conflicts”, assured Oleg Bogdanov, who helped Russian promoter Igor Shafer to stage this event. Meanwhile, the winner of the fight will be ranked in top-15 by the WBA.

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On Saturday, September 10, Bulgarian middleweight Alexey Ribchev (10-3-1, 3 KOs) takes on Uruguayan veteran Ruben Silva Diaz (37-21-4, 20 KOs) at Dunav Hall in Rousse, Bulgaria, over ten rounds. Vasko Vasilev promotes.

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The day before in Niksic, Montenegro, Ljubisa Ignatovic of Chip Promotions, will stage another local show, which will feature local star Nikola Sjekloca (21-0, 6 KOs) in a non-title six-rounder. Sjekloca is ranked #6 by the WBC at super middleweight division, and he is best known for his recent win over Khoren Gevor for the WBC International title.