Remember those old heroes from the Might and Magic computer game series. It looks like they became a reality in Russia, and the next month was proclaimed “The Month of Cruiserweights”… Talk about doubling the population.

This coming Saturday will see a major local 200lb showdown between two relatively young fighters. An older one (yet undefeated and untested) is high-rated WBA/IBF #3, WBO #4 and WBC #6 kayo artist Yuri Kashinskiy (18-0, 16 KOs). His opponent is a once-defeated former Russian heavyweight champion and now cruiserweight contender Ruslan Fayfer.

Fayfer, 28, is rated pretty high himself: IBF #8, WBC #8 and WBO #12, meaning that a winner of this bout, which takes place in Maykop, not far from Fayfer’s hometown, can be catapulted right into the mandatory position by one of the sanctioning bodies. Fayfer (24-1, 16 KOs) suffered his lone loss in October 2018, dropping a close unanimous decision to 16-0 Andrew Tabiti in the quarterfinals of the WBSS second season.

Kashinskiy, 33, meanwhile, can be slowing down. In his latest fight he was pushed to the limit by unheralded Frenchman Olivier Vautrain (14-1-1), barely edging him over ten close rounds via a unanimous decision. He had stopped eight opponents before that.

Also, on the card is another WBSS Season 2 cruiserweight quarterfinalist. Now competing as a light heavyweight is the very active Maxim Vlasov (44-3, 26 KOs) is rated #5 by the WBO and #11 by the IBF. His opponent has not been announced yet.

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A week after another solid cruiserweight will be featured in a stay-busy fight. WBC #12 Alexey Egorov (9-0, 7 KOs) looks to shine against Ukrainian Sergey Radchenko (7-4, 2 KOs). Radchenko, who has never been stopped, is best known for those fights he has lost than for any of those he has won. Radchenko had WBO cruiserweight champion Krzysztof Glowacki reeling and almost stopped in February 2018 and also pushed his countryman Adam Balski to the very limit in December of the very same year.

Egorov vs. Radchenko is scheduled for ten and takes place in Ekaterinburg, Russia.

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Don’t forget about a huge night of boxing to take place on December 21 in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. It’s where former Super WBA/IBF champion Denis Lebedev (32-2, 23 KOs) makes his comeback against South African Thabiso Mchunu (21-5, 13 KOs).

An opponent was named for the second cruiserweight on the card in kayo artist Dmitry Kudryashov (23-3, 23 KOs). An extremely (for our, not for his good) crowd-pleasing performer will look to rebound from his latest loss to Ilunga Makabu versus Czech import Vaclav Pejsar (14-8, 12 KOs). It’s scheduled for ten.