Evgeniy Prudnik – he jumped over his head this year. It all started at the European Championship, where he beat Rustam Babayev in a very hard final fight. Evgeniy has given decent fight to Rustam for a long time, but it was always a little too little for victory. And at last it happened – hard, long-awaited and deserved victory. Drug control made the event much brighter: Evgeniy officially fought Rustam, who used banned drugs, and it was official, which is doubly cool!Then Evgeniy won at the World Championship in both hands and came to Nemiroff in a great mood. First day he got totally defeated in left hand and got only 11^th place. Nobody expected it, even Evgeniy. But the second day everything clicked in place and wiped out the disappointment of the previous day. Evgeniy masterfully won in his category, using different moves: he used his best hook, and also top roll. Only the Italian sportsman was able to provide some resistance. He fought on a high level and with great perspectives.

Then Evgeniy entered the OPEN class (he didn’t even think that he would become a hero of this tournament), but more about it later.

Khadzhimurat Zoloyev surprised everyone this time , when he decided to fight in 95 kg category. When I looked at the lists I was surprised at first, when I didn’t see Khadzhimurat in 78 kg and 86 kg, and a second time – when I saw him at 95 kg.

Khadzhimurat Zoloyev is well known for his strong right hand. I mean, his left hand is not bad for his category, but his right fits all categories.

And that was Zoloyev and 95kg. Before the start of tournament, of course, I got all sorts of thoughts like: “Did he really get to 90 kg?!”. But when the category started, Khadzhi came to the table and I saw that he wasn’t 90. It meant, he just wanted to fight with bigger guys, because he was a champion of all categories from 70 kg up.

And his debut was more than lucky, Zoloyev won this category in a way no one had any questions about. There were hopes that Artem Taynov could do something with a hook or Terence Opperman with the top roll, but not this time.

I want to congratulate Khadzhimurat for this success, because he was 4-times champion in a row and it’s cool!

But he’s got a new challenge with this victory, but more about it later.

Weight category +95 kg, or One-sided world. Last time it was very boring, Denis Tsyplenkov was the undefeatable leader, and decisively stronger than all of his opponents (at least all the opponents believed in it and no one even tried). Then Andrey Pushkar, he is strong too, but a little less (some tried to fight him, but it wasn’t successful).

The scenario worked out, Dennis and Andrew blasted all to smithereens (nobody resisted, as we remember) till the moment they met, then one of them gave up his hand without a fight (as always it was Andrey, he is a bit weaker, as we know) because he didn’t want to give chances to mere mortals – what if they tried to fight? What then? Defeat? For what? For a spectacular fight, passion, fire, emotion? Please…

Then there was the very boring final, the level of boredom the result of how much Andrey believed that “Denis was a bit stronger”. If he believed a lot – the final is boring. If not – it could be a little better.

But this time everything happened in a different way.

All started with Modestas Grigaitis, the gigantic Lithuanian with very long hands and respectful level of top roll game. Such rivals are not very comfortable for Denis, and in addition Modestas tried (good God!!!) to fight him! Such meanness was not expected. Yes, he was defeated in the unequal fight, but he fought! Nobody could call him a dweeb. And it was only the beginning.

Dave Chaffee. Honestly, I know him only from this tournament and I don’t want to rewrite the info from the Web – you can read it for yourself.

Dave and Denis came to the table, referee made the grip, said “Go!” and… there happened something nobody ever expected, by habit - Denis’s hand headed in the direction opposite to that which common sense and habit made us expect. Broken grip in a losing position for Denis, and referee indicates that the fight can be continued. Audience naturally howled, it meant the start of long-awaited "Fire", which was lacking. Straps, grip, “Go!” and the situation is repeated! It was hard to believe, there was a text orgy in the online translation chat, something incredible was happening in the room. Emotions were over the edge and that meant that "fire" was back in the 95 kg category. In this fight Dave won. But that was only the beginning of the "fire", it just started to flare up, it would only get hotter.

Dave Chaffee came to the final, Pushkar and Denis – to the semi-finals. All were in emotions – Andrey knew for sure that it was possible to fight Denis. Denis was not confident in his force, the fight with Chaffee was very hard. Referee said “Go!” and Denis’s hand did the same as with Dave, only not so hard. He could keep his hand in that critical point. Hands were staying in the middle of the table, but Andrey made a mistake. Denis turned his hand into a comfortable position to attack and won. It was really great, Andrey was not far from success.

And viewers are waiting for the final between Dave Chaffee and Denis Tsyplenkov.

It is pointless to try and describe final fights; you just need to see it. All were mad who missed such tournaments. We needed to pay tribute to Denis, he was able to gather himself up after the defeat, shift gears, and still win - to prove that he is the strongest at the moment.

So in that way the heavyweights category became more varied and it’s cool!

OPEN category. After a real war, made by Tsyplenkov and Chaffee in the +95 finals (after which Chaffee gained a big number of fans all around the world) they didn’t fight in Open because of moral and physical fatigue. Although Dave was in, he didn’t fight as well.

One of the most interesting struggles of OPEN was the fight between Khadzhimurat Zoloyev and Evgeniy Prudnik. Both weigh about the same, both are multiple champions of the world, both are good in a protracted "hook block struggle". Khadzhi was the favorite, who easily took the category 95kg and had a track record and a vast experience in dealing with opponents of different weight classes and skill levels.

Maybe this excessive confidence played a role which shifted the equilibrium of the balance to one side.

He came to the fight in hook, referee made a grip, “go!”, Khadzhi attacked. First kick and Evgeniy’s hand turned in the way of roll, but stopped far away from that. Second kick and his hand moved much less. We saw the fight slow down, which was more favorable for the audience.

It’s time for Evgeniy’s attack. After some of this, Khadzhimurat’s hand still stands stone-like. Khadzhi shook his head and demonstrated self-confidence and the power of his hook. He was preparing his attack. In a matter of a second he tried to finish it in his favor. With a bit of luck Evgeniy held it, and turned his shoulder into good position, and after a couple of attacks he won. It was the most beautiful fight.

In my opinion Evgeniy wasn’t stronger, but he won with a good position. It was worth respect.

I wish him to prepare well for future championships, because Khadzhi won’t leave it and will try to exact revenge as soon as possible. So, Evgeniy is in for a busy future.

After such a great victory over Khadzhimurat, Evgeniy ran through the Open category like a truck. He defeated all his rivals, except Andrey Pushkar, who easily went through fights and stayed fresh. Andrey beat Prudnik in one kick.

Another spectacular war was the one between Zoloyev and Grigaitis. The most interesting thing was not the match itself, but the reaction of the huge Latvian sportsman after defeating Khadzhi. Modestas enjoyed the victory like a child and it caused smiles ant it was cool!

In the end I want to state that this year’s Nemiroff was brilliant. I can’t write about it all, but I tried to describe the most important fights.

P.S.

I don’t know how correct this parallel is, but Chaffee was like Prometeus, who gave fire to people. He defied Denis and showed the others that winning is possible.