I would like to bring to the attention of armwrestling fans the analysis of the tournament «Vendetta in Vegas - Armfight # 43" which took place on July 12 at that Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Las Vegas. The tournament featured 4 historical armwrestling matches between the strongest athletes in different weight categories.

First of all, I want to note that we had to overcome many difficulties during the organization of this Vendetta. It took us 7 months of great efforts to make this event happen. First, after difficult negotiations, we were waiting for the CBS Sports Network contract to be signed, then locking up the date and venue for the tournament, solving other problems. The biggest obstacle was the fact that today "the market" has a large number of athletes who are blocked by contracts with different organizations.

So, the first match - Vazgen Soghoyan and Chris Gobby. Many of you are wondering why other athletes like Geoff Hale and Corrie Miller were not invited to fight with Vazgen. Why we have chosen Chris Gobby - an athlete supposedly inferior to Vazgen by some indicators. We have proposed Geoff Hale to compete with Vazgen 4 months ago. He has refused. He could not take part in the fight as he had a contract with another organization that did not allow him to fight at Vendetta. We started to look for another opponent urgently. And we do not regret our choice fell on Chris. We met a great guy, a devoted athlete Chris Gobby, who was, perhaps unnoticed by other organizations, competing at some regional events, but, nevertheless, he is very promising and talented athlete. Yes, he has lost. Vazgen was stronger than him and won with a score of 5: 1. But the fact that Chris Gobby accepted Vazgen’s challenge for Vendetta, managed to lose weight to the corresponding level speaks for itself. Still Vazgen is a World Champion and there is not much reason to regret about the loss. World Champion has met the Champion of Canada and we saw the result.

Second armfight - Jan Zolcinski and Harold Owens -  all of a sudden became the most interesting and most dramatic duel at «Vendetta in Vegas - Armfight # 43." Some time ago, I have invited Jan to pull at Arnold Classic for he tested his hand with the American athletes. It so happened that he lost to Harold Owens on his right hand that time. Jan had problems with his right hand as he was left-hand athlete. His left hand is much stronger in the wrestling, than the right one. Secondly, his training system did not allow him to go far enough to compete with the athletes of such a high level as Harold Owens. However, in June, when I was doing a seminar on arm wrestling in Poland, Jan Zolcinski found time to come for my consultation on training. Within a month he was able to bring his hand to such a level that it stopped getting stuffed under heavy loads. After the match, he told me that his fingers and forearm are not stuffed and he didn’t feel soreness at all. He is very happy with the training system, which I prescribed for him and asked us, as organizers of the «Vendetta in Vegas - Armfight # 43», to organize him a match on the left hand. I believe that a worthy opponent for him is Chris Chandler. At the moment, we are considering this option for a future «Vendetta in Vegas».

The third match was the most anticipated fight of «Vendetta in Vegas - Armfight # 43». The idea of ​​the whole event was based on it. At this match, in the Unlimited weight class met two of the most famous athletes of the world of armwrestling - Eugene Prudnik, who pulled at the European Championship in the up to 90 kilograms weight class, and Tim Bresnan, weighing 130 kg. Tim challenged Eugene for the Vendetta after their previous match he lost to Eugene by fouls at the Nemiroff Professional World Cup 2013. 

For their rematch at this Vendetta a special film called «Vendetta in Vegas - Armfight # 43. Countdown» was made. The short movie features the ordinary lives of two athletes, in particular Eugene, who is a professional actor in the Operetta Theatre Kiev, Ukraine.

But a month before Vendetta the unexpected tragedy happened. During the final match of the European Championship Eugene hurt his shoulder joint. The articular lip appeared to be so damaged that his shoulder needed a long rehabilitation period. However, Eugene accepted the challenge of Tim, and, according to himself, was ready for a fight. The extent of his readiness was difficult to determine because lately he had no hard training. Eugene engaged in the rehabilitation of the damaged joint - massages, physiotherapy and so on. During the first round, according to Tim Bresnan, something snapped in the Eugene’s wrist. Tim was pulling with a top-roll and felt that there was something wrong with his opponent’s wrist. And, during the next round, something snapped in Eugene’s shoulder joint. Prudnik said Pushkar, who assisted him during the match, that he felt concern for his hand. And after the fourth match, with the score 4: 0, Referee-in Chief Leonid Harkless decided to stop the fight and declared Tim Bresnan the winner. For the first time in the history of the Professional Armwrestling League, the match was stopped and the winner was announced ahead of time. On this occasion sounded a lot of criticism. What can I say? Sports aspect of the «Vendetta in Vegas» is always unpredictable as it is a real sports event not just a show. Just like in MMA or boxing matches, where organizers can not guarantee that the match will not end in the first seconds. Someone said that athletes were not properly selected and the like. I can say that in a real fight anyone can find himself in such a situation. Let me stress again that the Bresnan-Prudnik fight was a main card, the whole Vendetta 43 was built around it. But, unfortunately, that fight turned out to be the worst that evening. We are waiting for Eugene’s recovery. He also fights well on the left hand. I am sure we will see him back soon struggling on his left hand in some very interesting match.

The fourth match was, we might say, the most promoted fight in the armfighs' history. This number of likes and shares exceeded all expectations. Despite the fact that Richard Lupkes lost -  Andrew Pushkar did not leave him any chance to win - this match made us feel nothing but admiration for the fact that in his 59, Richard took up the challenge and fought with Andrew. A month ago, when we promoted this fight with Jerry Cadorette, Jerry decided to fight in a different league at the last moment. Of course, we respect the choice of Jerry, but he had to make a choice before we began to invest in the promotion of the fight and athletes. However, we quickly found a solution and agreed with Richard about the match. Today, there is practically no choice of opponents for Andrey Pushkar. Those athletes who can fight with him today are blocked in other leagues. In the future, we may want to look for opponents for Andrew’s left arm - maybe there will be someone who will be able to confront Andrew.

However, we have some ideas about Pushkar future opponents on the right hand in the near future, but for now we want to keep this information secret. The only thing that we can say that those are the candidates of the highest level.

What are the plans of the Professional Armwrestling League until the end of this year? We organize the following Vendetta in Vegas which was planned for October, but may be held in September. Zloty Tur Professional World Cup on November 21-22, and then will be the next Vendetta in early January 2016.

On my own behalf, I want to assure all armwrestling fans that, as an organizer, I never affect the results of our armfights. So I do not get involved in refereeing. What else can I say about the refereeing? To date, this is the strongest point of the Professional Armwrestling League USA. We managed to bring together the work of three talented referees. They are: Leonard Harkless - World Armwrestling Federation Referee-in-Chief, Andrey Mosolov - World Champion and the Master class referee and Reza Dilmaghanian - young referee - expert in judging by a video monitoring system.

In the future, this team will report results and rule changes to the public.