By Alexey Sukachev

A fight card, which is expected to take place under the RCC Boxing Promotions on September 9 in the Old Russian city of Chelyabinsk, is getting bigger with each coming week. RCC Boxing Promotions is a new brand, organized by German Titov and his son Alexey, with a help of some investors.

The latest addition to a big card is a former two-time super featherweight champion Malcolm Klassen of South Africa, who is expected to test up-and-coming local prospect Mikhail Alekseev in a heated ten-rounder.

35-year old Klassen (33-6-2, 17 KOs), who kicked off his pro career at a tender age of 17, was relatively unknown by mid-2005 with a mediocre record of 13-3-2. He got a big year after that, winning and then defending his national title thrice before becoming an unlikely IBF world champion in November 2006 by dethroning Guyana’s Gary St. Clair on a split decision. He lost his title in his very first defense also on a split decision to Mzonke Fana.

Klassen came back strong with four stoppage wins including one of former multi-time world champion Manuel Medina before halting fellow countryman Cassius Baloyi to win the very same IBF 130lb title for the second time. Once again, Klassen failed to defend it being beaten in a close fight by Robert Guerrero.

The South African has been fighting sparsely after that, going 8 (3)-1 in over eight years, which however included another win over Baloyi, an entertaining decision over ex-WBA lightweight king Paulus Moses and stoppages of notable journeymen Justin Savi and Leonilo Miranda. His lone loss to Australia’s Will Tomlinson was highly debatable, and he has never been stopped in his career.

WBO #15 Alekseev (10-0, 4 KOs) will make an enormous step up in class just by fighting Klassen. The Russian youngster is best known for his solid win last May over Filipino Romero Duno, which was Duno’s only loss to date.

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Klassen previously held the IBO super featherweight crown. Now vacated, this title will be contested in another fight between the Youth and the Experience, which will be the featured match-up of the night. Youth is represented by the Tajik native Shavkhat Rakhimov (10-0, 8 KOs), who faces vastly more experienced Argentinean Fernando David Saucedo (61-6-3, 10 KOs).

Rakhimov, 22, started his career in December 2015 and was very active recently. Saucedo, 35, on the other hands twice fought for a world title, losing on points both to Chris John in 2010 and Rances Barthelemy in 2014.

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There are more prospects in the card.

Light middleweight prospect Magomed Kurbanov (11-0, 9 KOs), who was best known for his public call for a showdown versus an aging version of Shane Mosley, is scheduled to fight an-ever-dangerous TBA over twelve rounds.

WBO #11, WBA #13 and IBF #15 cruiserweight Yuri Kashinskiy (13-0, 12 KOs) is focused on defending his WBO Oriental cruiserweight title – also against the TBA.

One fight, which has already been defined, is one between young prospect Zaur Abdullaev (5-0, 3 KOs) and fight veteran Rustam Nugaev (29-8-1, 19 KOs), scheduled over eight at the lightweight class.

Also taking part in the show are: Tajik Muhammadkhuja Yakubov (8-0, 5 KOs), Gasan Gimbatov (1-0, 1 KO) and Zafar Parpiev (1-0).