Already next week, on March 26, Grozny (Chechen Republic, Russia) will host the 138th tournament of the Absolute Championship Akhmat (ACA) fighting league. In the preliminary card of the evening, Kazakh welterweight, former Fight Nights Global champion Georgy Kichigin (25-8), will return to the cage, bbabo.net reports.
The opponent of the 33-year-old Kazakhstani will be the 32-year-old Russian fighter from Dagestan Magomedsaigid Alibekov (11-3), who was also the champion of Fight Nights, only in lightweight.
For Kichigin, who has been playing professionally since 2012, this will be the fifth fight in the ACA league, and by the current moment he alternates victories and defeats. In October last year, Georgiy lost to Russian Chersi Dudayev (13-2) by submission in the third round.
Alibekov began his professional career in 2014 and won his starting nine fights. In the eighth fight, he became the Fight Nights lightweight champion, defeating Azerbaijani Nariman Abbasov (27-3). Four months later, he defended his title, defeating Kazakhstani Kuat "Naiman" Khamitov (21-8-1) by a five-round majority decision.
Kichigin made a statement last week saying he wanted to "pay back" Alibekov for his compatriot and sparring partner Khamitov.
Performances under the auspices of the ASA at Magomedsaygid are not the most stable. So far, he has one win in the promotion with two defeats. In June last year, the Russian lost by majority decision to the Brazilian Irving Romero Machado (17-8-2-1).
In 2020, Alibekov finally moved to the welterweight category. In July of the same year, they were already supposed to fight Kichigin at the 106th ACA tournament, but in the end, the Kazakhstani passed a positive test for covid.
It should be noted that Khamitov's former rival Akhmadkhan Bokov, Kyrgyz fighter Edil Esengulov, who had his last fight at the Naiza tournament in Kazakhstan, Arman Ospanov's ex-opponent, a famous athlete from Russia Rasul Mirzaev, and Artem Reznikov's opponent Yusuf Raisov will also perform at this tournament.
The latter, by the way, will fight in the lightweight grand prix, where Reznikov will also participate. Yusuf's opponent will be the Brazilian Hakran Diaz.
In addition to all this, the final three fights of the tournament will feature heavyweight, bantamweight and welterweight title fights. A total of 19 fights are expected at the ACA 138 tournament.
The MMA tournament with the participation of Kazakhstanis was "cancelled" in Russia. Details
bbabo.Net