Dmitry Kudryashov

A while back, it was announced how, in September of this year, an eight-man cruiserweight tournament would take place; with the prestigious Muhammad Ali trophy up for grabs. Almost immediately, three great cruiserweights, reigning world champions no less, signed on for the expected thriller of a tournament.

WBC king Mairis Breidis is in, as is WBA champ Yunier Dorticos, as well as IBF ruler Murat Gassiev. All three champs are undefeated, involved in exciting fights and they can all punch. But to add to the excitement, it has been announced how former champ Krzysztof Wlodarczyk is also set to take part and, perhaps most excitingly of all, KO-King Dmitry Kudryashov has also reportedly signed on.

Rewind to November of 2015, and Russian bomber Dmitry Kudryashov was an unbeaten 18-0(18) cruiserweight destroyer who had, well, destroyed everyone and anyone in his path. Going up against Nigeria’s tough and hungry Olanrewaju Durodola in his homeland, Kudryashov was shocked to second round stoppage defeat.

The Russian invasion of the cruiserweight division continued on Friday night at the Luzhniki arena in Moscow. All three Russian cruiser weights, Grigory Drozd, Rakhim Chakhkiev and Dmitri Kudryashov who fought on the under-card of Povetkin/Perez stopped their opponents and established Russian as the official language of the division. Oleksandr Usyk of the Ukraine must be mentioned as a potential game-changer in the division and he speaks fluent Russian as well. Marco Huck (Muamer Hukic) has studied Russian at school in his native Serbia as a boy but it will hardly help him come to terms with the advancing troops. Huck had an extremely hard time with Dennis Lebedev and the new guard seems tougher.