"We'll win and go home." What the participants of the two most intriguing fights “Boxing Night” in Brest say

In the Brest sports complex "Victoria" on October 25 will be held the international tournament "Boxing Night" under the auspices of IBA PRO. The program includes classic boxing, fights in gloves for MMA and a meeting of famous martial arts veterans. Among the participants are Belarusian athletes and guests from Russia, Cuba and Moldova. The day before, participants spoke with journalists. The conversation about the upcoming fights turned out to be different in mood. In the main fight of the evening heavyweights Vladislav Smellikov and Teimuraz Surov intend to challenge each other's confidence. And Jeff Monson and Ivan Sholtoyanu are still exchanging friendly jokes - although no one is going to concede in the ring, judging by their words.

The main event of Boxing Night will be a meeting between Belarusian Vladislav Smellikov and Russian Teimuraz Surov. At the press conference, the presenter offered Surov to assess the future opponent: what was noticed in his speeches and what to expect from a face-to-face meeting? It turned out that the Russian did not analyze the video.

- I haven't watched a fight. We will come out, box, win, go home, Teimuraz said.

When asked how he handled the excitement before entering the ring, he replied:

- Everyone's worried about fighting, I think. So, as always, I just go overboard and go into battle.

The confident statement did not go unanswered. Smellikov admitted that there will be a young opponent with a good school in front of him, but he also recalled his own experience. Behind the Belarusians – performance at the Olympics in Tokyo and many meetings with serious opponents.

- The opponent is really good, young, quite experienced, with a good school. This confrontation will be interesting because I am also a guy not from the yard, not from the street, but with a lot of boxing experience. The fight will be quite interesting, tough. To confirm the words of my opponent that he will win and go home with a victory, I can not, because I also go to fight to win. Let the strongest win in this confrontation.

Smellikov did not predict the result: both are preparing and both want to win. So Surov’s confidence in returning home with a victory, the Belarusian so far offered to check in the ring.

If in the conversation of heavyweights there was a sense of rivalry, then the communication of Jeff Monson and Ivan Sholtoyan was more like a meeting of old friends. However, one thing does not interfere with the other: the Moldovan fighter has long wanted to enter the ring against Monson and is now clearly happy that their fight will take place in Brest.

Today, the future rivals even visited the church together. For Sholtoyan, this was another reason to make a good-natured prank on a friend right at a press conference:

- We called Jeff and said there was an opportunity to fight in Belarus. He replied, “No problem, Ivan, let’s fight.” And I said, "I'm not going to leave you alone, I'm going to find you anywhere." Even today I found him in church! So, Jeff, it won't be easy with me. Seriously, I am grateful for his respect and for agreeing to this fight.

Monson responded with no loud promises. He spoke warmly about Ivan, but made it clear that friendly relations do not prevent taking the upcoming meeting seriously.

- I have a very heavy opponent. Ivan is the kickboxing world champion. I'm very excited. He's my friend, a good man, helped me before. This is going to be very interesting.

Jeff had enough attention that day. Before meeting with journalists, fans surrounded the legend of martial arts and literally did not let go on stage: everyone wanted to get an autograph. Tomorrow, instead of a pen, there will be gloves, and on the contrary, a friend who has already promised a difficult fight.

“Boxing Night” will be held tomorrow, October 25, in the Brest sports complex “Victoria”. In Brest on the eve of Boxing Night, participants of the international tournament and organizers met with journalists