A heavyweight male, weighing in excess of thirty-two stone, competed this week against a strawweight female opponent in another intergender fight hosted by controversial Russian mixed martial arts promotion, Epic Fighting Championships.
The heavyweight, Grigory Chistyakov rose to prominence back in 2020 after he suffered a defeat against flyweight female competitor, Darina Mazdyuk in another highly scrutinized and criticized intergender professional mixed martial arts fight. Off the back of Mazyduk’s win, she later penned a deal with North American-based promotion, Bellator MMA.
Grigory Chisyakov suffered a stoppage loss to recent Bellator signee, Darina Mazyduk in 2020
This time around, however, earlier this week, Chistyakov fought to a decision against strawweight opponent, Alexsandra Stepakova, surviving the entire three round bout at an Epic Fighting Championships event.
In the early stages of the bout, Chistyakov, who entered the clash with more than a 300lbs weight advantage against Stepakova, rushed forward in an aggressive manner, firing off a one-two combination.
Throughout the majority of the Epic Fighting Championships bout, however, Stepakova managed to stick on the outside and avoid the majority of Chistyakov’s wild, swinging hooks – landing a series of leg kicks in a bid to chop down the Russian.
In the second round, the bout was briefly called to a halt after a cage-side viewer scaled the enclosure and struck Chistyakov – forcing the referee to intervene.
Upon the culmination of the bout, which went the entire three round distance, Chistyakov was awarded a decision victory over the strawweight, Stepakova – as the second round intruder then once more entered the cage, this time to square off with Chistyakov in a staredown.
The same Epic Fighting Championships event also hosted a series of two-on-one fights during the same event, including a bout pitting a 75-year-old Vietnam war veteran grandfather, and his 18-year-old grandson against a lone female opponent in another criticized intergender professional mixed martial arts clash.