Almost 100 contestants from 16 countries, scores of spectators, incredible fights, power and adrenaline, and a sports show with world-level champions on board. This is how the PROFESSIONALS' WORLD CUP - NEMIROFF WORLD CUP 2007 can be summed up.

Over a thousand spectators had a chance to watch every day of the rivalry. This year's Professionals' World Cup has had World and European Champions fighting for the main titles.

The contestants fought in two male categories, both days of the tournament (up to 63 kg, up to 70 kg, up to 78 kg, up to 86 kg, up to 95 kg and over 95 kg), and one female category (up to 60 kg). The whole tournament endend with the prestigious OPEN category - to choose the best sportsman of 2007. In left arm, the best fighter was Ukrainian - Andrey Pushkar, in right arm - last year's title defender, John Brzenk.

The rivalry started with the lightest male category - up to 63 kg. The best in right arm in this category turned out to be Corhalt Aslan Evren from Turkey (3rd in right).Iin right, the best was Balandin Oleksandr from Ukraine, who hasn't fought in left, giving a chance to others. This was a shame, his performance on Saturday has shown he would have been a formidable opponent. Also in this category, we saw a good start from a Polish fighter - Dawid Groch from Nisk, who took 2nd place in left (he has't fought in right, unfortunately).

The second male category - up to 70 kg, saw Mnatsakanyan Vladimir from ukraine as undefeated (4th place in right), the second day - Pautaran Pavel from Belarus (no start in left). A good sfight was shown by a Polish fighter - Dawid Bartosiewicz from Choszczno. He placed 2nd in general classificaion in both arms.

In up to 78 kg, 1st place in left went to Jagnesak Lubomir from Slovakia, 1st place in right - Liliev Arsen from Russia. The favorite of this category, Bulenkov Alexander from Russia, came 2nd in this category, to the great surprise of all armwtesling specialists.

The up to 86 category was dominated by a very talented and strong Ukrainian - Ruslan Babaev, who won two gold medals. He was way beyond any other fighter in this category.

As in up to 86, also in up to 95 kg only one fighter dominated - John Brzenk from USA. John was the star of the category. He won first place, both in left ( a great feat, as he normally doesn't wrestle with left at all), and in right.

In the heaviest male category - over 95, only two names dominated from the start - Pushkar Andrey from Ukraine and Farid Uzmanov from Uzbekhistan. They took the first two places in both arms. Even though their rivalry was long and hard, the Ukrainian came out on top in the end.

In the female category - the only weight category for women, up to 60 kg - two Ukrainians had good starts - Skoryk Olena and Iliushyna Viktoriia,, who shared the two first places at the podium (Viktoria 1st in left, 2nd in right, Olena - the other way). Beata Stełmaszczyk from Lublin had a great start and placed 3rd in left.

The annual Professionals' World Cup is meant to choose the strongest sportsman of the year. This year's rivalry was enriched by left arm bouts. After a hard fight in the OPEN category, the titles went to Andrey Pushkar from Ukraine (left) and John Brzenk from USA - right arm. The situation might have been different, if we saw in this category such names as Andrey Semerenko (Ukraine), Alexey Voevoda (Russia), or Dima Kocziew (Russia). Unfortunately, they were not there. Their loss - there was a great many fighters to fight with, and the prize money was 20 000 $.

Paweł Podlewski