For the first time on the world stage, Alex declared himself in 2016, when in super heavy class and in the open weight class of the international tournament he left behind such eminent athletes as Peter Margarint, Vadim Stetsyuk, Plamen Dimitrov. Less than a year later, Alex repeated his result at the Zloty Tur 2017, and this is much more serious. This time he walked around Vitaly Laletin, Alexei Semerenko, Revaz Lutidze, Georgi Tsvetkov and Dmitry Silaev.
The prize place on the Zloty Tur gives the athlete such popularity, which, at the moment, can not offer any of the existing tournaments.
As Alex says: “After the medal on the Zloty Tur, I started to get to other competitions. The opportunity to compete on the anniversary Vendetta is an incredible level for an armwrestler, and after a won Vendetta, emotions overwhelmed me and the plan was 100% complete. So I recommend everyone to go to the Zloty Tur and fight, professional roads start there!”
Armfight took place on the anniversary Vendetta vs Scot Mendelson, let it not be the most formidable person in the world of armwrestling. But in March 2018, at the Arnold Classic Armwrestling Challenge, Scott pulled with Michael Todd, and after this fight Michael didn’t have enough strength to fight equally with Dmitry Trubin.
So, Alex is quite worthy to be among the reserve participants. And fortune helped him become a member.
What happens if Alex uses his chance in the Top 8 to the maximum? In the first round he will have to fight with the champions and it is obvious that the most successful outcome for him will be the fight against Rustam Babaiev or Genadi Kvikvinia, and Alex understands this: “I’m sure no one would like to pull with a pair of titans - Denis and Levan, I hope that all of the pullers would agree. That is, two remain: Rustam and Genadi”
Of these two rivals, he will be more accustomed to fight the latter, since they met more than once at past tournaments, saw each other in action and understand as an opponent. In case of victory, in the second round, Denis must meet with Levan, and Alex got to Tim Bresnan, who would take revenge on Rustam Babayev for the last meeting. Tim will be the most suitable opponent for Kurdecha because of his speed and possibly his stamina. This fight can take Alex to the final, which will be a big victory for him.
Alex is quite objective about his performance and tries to get maximum benefit for himself in the future: “If we talk about Top 8 and do it realistic, all the guys are much more experienced than me, they were already champions when I came to this sport. In addition, these 7 guys are the real elite of armwrestling, they have hundreds of fights, years of training and grinding techniques - they are the best, and this opportunity to learn from the best, fight them and see how they train and pull - this is a unique opportunity, and I'm going to use this chance to the maximum! There will be no easy fights, there are no easy rivals!”
What kind of scenario might not be the most successful for Alex? If Alex gets to Levan in the first round, then he will most likely remain in Group B. Dmitry Trubin may be the next opponent for him, since he would not overpower Denis in the first round. Alex has more chances against Dmitry than against Levan, but Dmitry will be the favorite here, considering that he is much more experienced and angrier for the victory than Alex, and his track record of defeated champions is much longer. In the fight for the 7th place, our hero can concede to Evgeniy Prudnik if he is not able to defeat Rustam in the first round, and lose to Tim in the second round. Prudnik has a chance to win despite the huge difference in weight, which is about 60 kg.
As it will be in reality, we can only guess, the draw and the tournament are very soon, and then we will find out how lucky Alex Kurdecha is and could he use his chance.