The next Vendetta is over and the results are surprising again. Why were the European players beaten again? Why was Andrej Pushkar defeated in the fight for the world champion’s title on the left arm? Where was Khadzimirat Zoloev’s famous hook? Why there was no conqueror of Tod on the right arm? These are the questions bothering all the armwrestling fans. Also Igor Mazurenko, the organizer of the tournament and an armwrestling expert, was looking for answers. And here are conclusions he reached.

When the format of the professional league was created players, experts and lovers of the discipline were wondering what was the difference. What is the difference between the professional armwrestling and amateur one as the same players take part in world and European championships and specially organized professional galas. These difference was shown by the performance of the Americans.

Starts of these players at the World Professionals’ Cup Nemiroff World Cup didn’t amaze us. Of course there is one exception - John Brzenk who won the cup of the open class four times. We do also remember Travis Baggent’s performance on the right arm. But for the rest of the players visit in Poland was not successful. Why? The answer has just come from Las Vegas.

The form of conducting Armfight tournaments is much different than the others, even the one at the Nemiroff World Cup. The way the players compete during Vendetta favours players who are not only well prepared in terms of strength but also in terms of endurance. The prove of how important it is to be well prepared in terms of resistance was the fight Devon Larratt vs Andrey Pushkar. It started just according to a plan. The Ukrainian beat Devon quite easily in the first fight. In the second fight, after a following disruption and setting, the Canadian made Andrey’s arm tired. Finally the fight was favourable for the Canadian. The next fights were just a mere formality.

If this fight was conducted due to the formula of for example Nemiroff World Cup, the Canadian would probably lost with the Ukrainian. However here we have the Armfight system. The one who is not only well prepared in terms of strength and technique but is also in a perfect condition wins. So it was in case of Devon. That’s why the PAL title deservedly went to Canada.

The second duel where Khazimurat Zoloev competed with his American opponent Tod Hutchnings, also revealed the difference in preparation of both players. Khazimurat devoted the last months before the tournament mainly to the work in the gym. Before the fight nothing was suggesting such a defeat. The American didn’t turn to be too hospitable and cheered by the audience won the whole duel.

In spite of his age (46 years old) Tod Hutchnings is becoming more and more grueling player. From month to month his progress and preparation for the best is visible. Just a year before after a successful performance at the Professionals’ Cup he declared to fight for the title of the world champion. Although he didn’t manage to beat Arsen Liliev from Russian during the Bulgarian Vendetta, at home, he didn’t let Zoloev to do anything. Before the duel Khazimurat, the hook champion was the favourite of the fight. However Tod perfectly used the time he had for preparations for the duel. The one responsible for his great shape was John Brzenk. Tod applied all directions and advices of his experienced friend and trainer and won 6:0. The interesting thing is that before the fight Russian allowed to defeats only, and predicted him to win 4:2. Khazimurat justifies his weak performance with the lack of proper sparring partners. In Osetia, where he trained before he had a few of them. Now, in Moscow, where he lives and works, what he has are just training at the gym.

Before the next duel between Michael Todd and Sergiy Tokarev almost no one fought the 31 year old Ukrainian could win. But he didn’t intend to give up easily. His performance could be liked. He proved to be well tactically prepared and to use the time of trainings as well as he could. Sergiy wasn’t simply strong enough for such an exhausting duel. Also Todd appreciated Sergiy’s preparation for the fight emphasizing that he was a harder opponent than Pushkar.

This duel ended with the score 6:0. Here also a proper sparring partner turned to be a key element of training.

Sergiey emphasized that in spite of the having who to train with at the table his partners are not perfect. And for such a tournaments this has to be the “highest quality” partner.

In the last fight of the evening Pushkar beat Bresnan. It was the fight for an honor of the European players. The duel began with the defeat of the Ukrainian. He got then even more determined and finally he won 5:1.

What did the duels in Las Vegas show us? That you have to prepare in a different way to a different tournaments. That’s why it is so important to adjust training to the formula of the tournament. While preparing for the Armfight Vendetta tournaments you have to remember about training at the table. Preparations and working with a load only may not be enough. That’s what the European players found out and should draw conclusions from. Will the do so? We’ll see.”

Piotr Korzeniewski