Mumbai Fighters face acid test against Kazakh rival

After spending weeks together strategizing ways and means to get the better of LA Matadors in our week 9 match on February 13, it was a pity to know that the match was cancelled. The part one of Bollywood vs. Hollywood battle was won by the Venky's Mumbai Fighters.

Matadors had made their intentions loud and clear to return the favour when we travel to their country. But their wish remained a wish. With this, we have consolidated our fourth position in Group A with 14 points in the kitty and look certain to qualify for quarterfinals.

But before all of that, we have a tougher opponent in Astana Arlans waiting for us in Almaty, Kazakhstan, for our last league match of the season this Friday. The WSB runners-up haven't had a convincing season by their standards. Though they blanked us 5-0 at home, their away losses to LA, Milano Thunder and Dynamo Moscow has brought them down to third place.

Without sounding over-confident, we are not really bothered about reputations and also past records. The best man in the ring on fight night is the one who wins. And that's what our new recruits did.

Uaine Fa Junior and Charly Suarez have become fan favourites in their first fights itself. And on board to the flight to Kazakhstan are two more debutants. Ivan Ilnytskyy in the bantamweight and Rahul Kumar in the light heavyweight will don black and gold of Fighters for the first time.

Rahul, a feisty competitor from South Central Railways, has been in the camp since its inception and has improved by leaps and bounds. At the Inter-Railways championship in Jabalpur last month, Rahul beat his opponent to pulp as referee had to stop the contest in the third round.

The 21-year old Ilnytskyy will meet Mirzhan Rakhimzhanov. At first sight, Ilnytskyy looks really small, but the bloke is like the big thing in a small packet. No wonder he has been nicknamed as 'Pocket Dynamite'.

More columns

Lightweight will see Fighters' knockout hero Suarez taking on Astana Arlans debutant Samat Bashenov. Ditto with middleweight Konstantin Snigour who will face another Kazakh team debutant named Rustam Svayev.

An acid test awaits the 22-year old Rahul who will face current light heavyweight individual champion Abdelhafid Benchabla on Friday night. To ensure he stays away from Benchabla’s speedy combinations, Rahul will have to put up a fight of his lifetime.

Benchabla, unlike last season, doesn’t have an unblemished record this time around. He lost his first match against arch-rival Ludovic Groguhe of Milano Thunder via TKO. Though Benchabla took revenge against the French heavyweight in the home match, the Algerian is still ranked No. 10 only, pretty low for a defending champ.

Our Moldovan heavyweight Mihail Muntean will meet the ever improving Algerian Chouaib Bouloudinats. But then somebody has correctly said, "Reputations rise and fall almost as regularly as the tides." So Fighters, here is your chance to build on the quarterfinal boost and make some more noise, positive ones.