This year's Professionals' World Cup was won in both arms by Andrey Pushkar, but the hero of this Cup was Dmitry Trubin. The Kazakhstan fighter did what no-one expected – he took on Pushkar in the struggle for the title of the champion of the world.

Before the fight in OPEN category, Dima said: I'm in good shape, maybe the best ever in my life. I had an injury in my left arm at the Asian Cup, I fought Farid Usmanov. I had no time to strengthen myself up, but it's okay. I'm happy with my left, and as for the right – we'll see.

And see we did. The show given to us by Dima Trubin will go down in Zloty Tur history. The fight took about 20 minutes, with referee breaks, and seemed to have no end. First Andrey fouled with his elbow, then Dima, and then a second time in the second fight. Not rightly, it turned out. The camera analysis showed that Dima didn't foul the second time. The fight had to be re-fought.

In Zloty Tur history it happened only once that the referee failed. It was back in 2006, when Roman Tsindeliani was wrongly ascribed a foul. As compensation, PAL gave him the equivalent of the third place money prize in Nemiroff World Cup – explains Igor Mazurenko, organizer of Zloty Tur.

Why did Pushkar become a target for Trubin?

There were no warning signs – admits Igor Mazurenko. - Everyone was certain that the fight would go to Andrey , quick and clean. But after „Ready! Go!” we saw a different story altogether. Andrey repeated his mistakes that made him lose to Michael Todd. It was just a matter of time for them to turn against him.

Before the final fight, Andrey told armpower.net: At the moment I think I am the strongest armwrestler in the world. Michael Todd is real competition to me, he fights with a technique I find uncomfortable. Also Devon Larratt is a very tough opponent, as well as Denis Ts yplenkov and Alexey Voevoda. If he makes a comeback, it will be interesting to fight him.

But the fight that Dima Trubin gave Pushkar made him revise his opinions. He now has another tough opponent.

I very much expected Dima to be a tough competition, he's a strong champion, in great shape.I think it's a great return for him, in brilliant shape. It was a real challenge to face him. I plan to train even harder, especially now that I have a new, tough opponent – Dima Trubin.

Trubin himself said after the fight: I had a lot of trouble controlling my stress levels, I was anxious the whole day before the fight. I tried to spare myself in the eliminations, to conserve my strength. We each knew our own limitations, so in the first rounds with Pushkar I gave up, so as not to lose strength that I needed for the finals. Andrey is a very strong guy, but I must admit I'm in pretty good shape too right now. I put a lot of focus into preparations for this tournament. I am very happy with my fight with Pushkar. It's not quite what I imagined, but I'm glad I stood up to him.

Iza Małkowska