At the EAGLES IX tournament there will be two championship belt fights.

 

The upcoming show is most likely to become very anticipated thanks to the fight card and the participants themselves. As we all know at the tournament, a real war will unfold for two championship belts in the 61kg category. One belt is for the absolute championship; we recall that this title belongs to Mihail Sirbu, who of course does not burn with desire to pass it on to the number one contender Bogdan Barbu, from the neighboring country, Romania. For a temporary belt, two young gladiators from Republic of Moldova will engage in a battle, Gheorghe Lupu, the representative of LION club and Denis Palancica, representing Thai Boxing club.

Lupu and Palancica have some old beef between them. In his debut match, Lupu lost to Denis ahead of schedule, also  earlier, in the amateur league, Lupu lost to Palancica. But, over the past year and a half, Lupu\’s level has grown very much, which is why Gheorghe and Denis were divided into different parts of the past EAGLES tournaments in order to bring their form to perfection and prove themselves in the title fight. 

The main card.

In the main card, we will see reigning champions in the act. Luka Poclit (3-1), the 77 kg category champion will meet with the rather dangerous Polish fighter Danelski (4-1). Luca has an interesting history with the belt. At the very beginning he won in the semifinals the fight with Botnaru, but he refused the title bout on doctors’ advice. As a result, in the first title fight, Botnaru fought against Barbarosa and won. But when the time to defend his belt came, he refused without explaining the reason. But then everything was finally in its place and Luca entered the cage instead. And he became the owner of the belt.

The upcoming battle with the Polish fighter is very important and responsible. First of all he’s a champion, and second of all polish fighters have some very serious school behind. Therefore, an easy fight is not in the cards for Poclit. But this is only for the benefit of the spectators and fans.

For sure everyone will wait for the fight involving the temporary heavyweight champion Alexander Romanov (7-0). In the title bout, he finished the more experienced Stolyarov, which caused incredible enthusiasm in the audience. If earlier, Romanov focused more on wrestling, now he works perfectly with his hands, and sometimes he breaks through excellent high kicks also remembering to work on the body and on the low. That being said, his technique improved and developed to be versatile. So far, he has no competition. And the search is complicated. But the more interesting it gets to find out who will become the next daredevil who challenges the Moldovan bogatyr.

In the main card, we will also see Barbarosa, the younger brother. He will have to defend the honor of his club in a fight against Ivan Zhvirblya in the literal sense. We recall that his former team-mate, the MMA veteran Oleg Craciun, at the EAGLES VII tournament lost by technical knockout from the Belarusian Zhvirblya.

At the EAGLES VIII tournament, against the Belarusian fought Vasile Suprovici. And for the great regret of all his fans, he suffered the same fate as Craciun. At the time Ivan said that he is ready to fight in the promotion only in the lower category, up to 71kg, as in the fights with Craciun and Suprovici he could weight only up to 73-74kg while his opponents weighed 3-4kg more.

His statement was taken into account by the organizers. And on May 26th we will see a great fight between the first contender for the EAGLES championship belt in the 71kg category, Andrei Barbarosa (5-5) and the Belarusian fighter Ivan Zhvirblya (2-0).

The confrontation between the representative of Azerbaijan Kenan Zhafarli (7-7) and Intezar Babanyazov (2-2) will also be interesting, a young Turkmenistan living in Belarus. Kenan could not forgive himself for the loss in front of Palancica, in the last show in Chisinau. After that, he immediately reached out to the organizers with a rematch request. To prove he’s in shape, he fought in the Bukovel Cup where he won a spectacular victory. As we learned earlier, Kenan\’s goal is the belt, and he is ready for any obstacles in the form of any rivals. But his forthcoming opponent is by no means an easy target.

The young turkmen, Intezar, was remembered for his daring fighting style and unshakable character. He demonstrated all of this in the duel against the champion Mihail Sirbu, at the seventh EAGLES tournament. To be noted, that even after he lost, he stated that he wants a fight with Lupu.

So the upcoming fight in the bantamweight category will not only be an intrigue but also one of the worthy fights of the MMA spring season.

Valeriu Mircea (14-5), a Moldavian participant in well-known projects as Bellator, RXF, M-1 Challenge, for the first time will fight in his own country. Earlier it was planned that he will fight against Abdisalam, but he recently signed a contract with ACB and cannot participate. His substitute will be a fellow compatriot, Nemat Abrashitov (8-6).

The bout will take place in the up to 70,3kg category. Both sportsmen understand that in case of victory, many opportunities will open up in the future. Mircea, as the more experienced , will try to prove himself. Nemat will try not to lose face as well and squeeze out as much as possible from this fight.

Whether or not Lipa (1-6) will qualify for 1 or 2 EAGLES tournaments depends on his upcoming fight against Shota Betlemidze (7-1). Lipa had two fights in the Eagles project, both against the Ukrainian fighter Yuri Protsenko. In both fights, Lipa lost due to an error. He got stuck on the ground.

Lipa performed great compared to the Ukrainian Protsenko, in the last confrontation.  And applied some good punches to his head, Protsenko, at some point, did not even hope for a victory, simply running in the cage and stalling the time. But as it was written earlier, Lipa got stuck on the ground and paid for it.

That being said, we must appreciate Viorel, he doesn’t choose his rivals, but fights with whoever is offering. But in case of a loss, he will have to miss 1 or 2 tournaments. It’s stated in the regulations.

His rival, Shota, is more fortunate. He has only one loss, from Romanov.  So this fight will be captivating as well. Beside the fact that this is the super heavy division, they have the same goals. Most likely Shota’s plan is to get closer to Romanov. Well, in Viorel\’s case, everything is clear; he needs a victory more than ever.

The more and more popular female MMA will also please fans within the ninth EAGLES project. We will see the already known Donna Chelli, who at the last event just finished the representative of Romania Daniela Bragaru. Donna’s debut was a great success. But she\’s not planning to stop any time soon. Do not forget she also had two fights in the K-1 project, which she won. Let’s hope she will amaze us with new victories.  Her rival on May 26th is the Ukrainian fighter Elena Andrushchenko, who just like Chelli, has one win in her piggy bank.  The match will be very competitive; more reason that it will become one of the attractions of the evening.   

Among the newcomers a tendency of a rapid and intense take-off in EAGLES is starting to form, the debutant of the seventh EAGLES project Daniel Negara (1-0) will once again entertain the martial arts amateurs with his performance. Let’s remember that at the February tournament he sent Pavel Bosca in a deep knockout. But now it will get more difficult for him. His opponent will be a fighter from Romania, Gabriel Manuca (1-1), who had 2 pro fights, one victory and one defeat. So Negara will have to make maximum effort to neutralize the opponent.

Leaked information said that at EAGLES IX we will see Popovski and Arteom Kula as well; they both live and train in the US. Is this true or not, we will find out soon enough.  We have exactly one month until the tournament. So stay tuned for the news.