“Despite some difficulties that we faced during the selection of the first season, we are ready to name those who will fight in the main pool of the tournament,” said Igor Mazurenko. - As you remember, according to the rules of TOP 8, participants are divided into Champions and Challengers. All participants have already proved world dominance in professional and amateur arena, each of them has corresponding titles. ”

So, the participants of the first Top 8, who will start the competition as Champions, will be:

Denis Tsyplenkov, Russia.

Levan Saginashvili, Georgia.

Gennady Kvikvinia, Georgia.

Rustam Babayev, Ukraine.

Participants who are entering the TOP 8 as Challengers are:

Tim Bresnan, USA.

Dmitry Trubin, Kazakhstan.

Alex Kurdecha, Poland. 

Evgeny Prudnik, Ukraine

“Unfortunately, we will not see Dave Chaffee, Michael Todd and Devon Larratt among the participants of the tournament. They were invited to take part in the first season and they happily expressed their willingness to compete in the top division. But the contracts with WAL, which they signed about a year ago, provided for obtaining permission to participate in TOP 8. They were not given this permission. We actively negotiated with WAL, but did not find a compromise solution. The level of TOP 8 simply will not allow athletes to physically participate in any other events. It’s possible, of course, that we will see them in the next seasons of TOP 8. It should be noted that to participate they will have to qualify for the Zloty Tour World Cup, win their category, which will undoubtedly be a difficult challenge next year, ”- said Igor Mazurenko.

The news of the non-participation of Dave Chaffee, Michael Todd and Devon Larratt was good news for Dmitry Trubin, Tim Bresnan, Yevgeny Prudnik and Alex Kurdecha. These athletes had to pull in transitional fights in order to win a place in the tournament of the top division. Now there is no need for these matches and all athletes will take part in the main pool of TOP 8.

Participants and organizers are already actively preparing for the first stage of the tournament at the beginning of April.