By Alexey Sukachev

After breakthrough years of 2014 and 2015, the World of Boxing, Russia’s top promotional outfit, limited its activities for a number of reasons, favouring quality over quantity and spreading out over the world’s largest country at the same time.

By doing so, WoB made it harder for a casual Moscow fan to observe boxing as it has largely shifted to the regions. However, almost five months since its last big card in the Russian capital, WoB makes its return by staging Russia’s largest boxing show on November 27 at Luzhniki Sports Arena. The card will feature almost all of the talent that WoB has, culminating in two twelve-rounders supported by a deep list of eight ten-rounders.

The main event will feature rising heavyweight talent Sergey Kuzmin (11-0, 8 KOs) in the toughest fight of his career against hard-nosed, prison-raised veteran Amir Mansour (23-2-1, 16 KOs).

Unrated Kuzmin, 30, is a former two-time Russian (2010 and 2011) and one-time European (2010) super heavyweight champion (as an amateur). He is a long-time friend of reigning WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol and is also trained by Gennady Mashyanov.

After an uninspiring start of his career (6-0, 3 KOs) Kuzmin has scored five consecutive knockouts, all within four rounds.

IBF #14 Mansour, an old man at 45, has fought once this year, defeating 31-1 Travis Kaufmann over twelve. Mansour was 20-0 before running into former cruiserweight champion Steve Cunningham, losing a hard-fought unanimous decision in April 2014. He is 3-2-1 after that. A vacant WBC International heavyweight title will be at risk in this fight.

Just one fight removed from his crushing loss to Julius Indongo, 37-year old veteran banger Eduard Troyanovskiy (26-1, 23 KOs) will gamble against almost unknown Paraguayan Carlos Manuel Portillo, thirteen years his younger. Unlike former IBF and IBO light welterweight Troyanovskiy, Portillo was absolutely unknown and fighting exclusively at home, when – being a major underdog – he was taken to Australia to produce a stunning upset against 34-3-3 Czar Amonsot, stopping him in three. Portillo is still untested at 21-0, 16 KOs.

In a cross-roader, rising cruiserweight talent and former kickboxing star Alexey Papin (8-0, 7 KOs) will take on Ukrainian prospect-turned-challenger-turned-journeyman Ismayl Sillakh (25-4, 19 KOs).

Sillakh, 32, is still capable of beating overmatched opponents but he has lost twice in a year when he stepped up – via KO 3 to Maxim Vlasov in June 2016 and via a close UD 10 to Polish Mateusz Masternak one year later. Sillakh was a stellar amateur with a complete record 302-16 and with a number of solid wins over a number of notables, including Badou Jack, Artur Beterbiev, Vyacheslav Shabranskiy, Abbos Attoev, Yunier Dorticos, Imre Szello and the others. He failed to transcend his success to the pros.

Another cross-roader between two once-defeated Russian light welterweights is set for a vacant WBO Asia Pacific 140lb belt. Vladikavkaz native Georgy Chelokhsaev (12-1-1, 10 KOs), 23, will collide with Evgueny Pavko (16-1-1, 11 KOs), 25, who has ironically fought in Vladikavkaz more often than his opponent. This is a rematch of the both fighters’ pro debut, which occurred in the fall of 2012 and ended in a four-round draw.

Former WBA Interim and reigning IBO light welterweight champion Svetlana Kulakova (12-0-1, 1 KOs) will defend her belt versus Kenyan import Judy Waigithii (15-7-4, 4 KOs), who has scored no wins while fighting abroad.

23-year old featherweight Evgueny Smirnov (10-0-1, 2 KOs) is looking for yet another win against Filipino upset specialist Jhon Ghemino (16-9-1, 7 KOs).

Despite his deceiving record, Ghemino did have some sound wins, including the first-round kayo of undefeated Toka Kahn-Clary (19-0 at the time) in September 2016.

In a potential show-stealer, undefeated Russian featherweights will clash over ten rounds, as Valery Tretyakov (11-0, 4 KOs) goes against Odessa-born Arnold Khegai (10-0-1, 7 KOs).

22-year old welterweight Sergey Lubkovich (6-0, 5 KOs) will look to add a former world title challenger to his resume. He will battle Italian veteran Michele Di Rocco (41-3-1, 18 KOs), 35. Di Rocco fought in Moscow this June but lost on the fourth-round kayo to light welterweight banger Eduard Troyanovskiy.

Cruiserweight Alexey Egorov (3-0, 2 KOs) will be tested by former Russian national champion Andrey Knyazev (16-5, 9 KOs), while heavyweight Andrey Afonin (4-0, 2 KO) goes ten against Belarussian Victor Chvarkov (2-2).

The show starts at 5 PM LT and will be televised by Russian TV.