Absolute Championship Akhmat title contender Magomedrasul
Khasbulayev, who was supposed to fight reigning featherweight king
Felipe
Froes at ACA 113 on Nov. 6 in Moscow, was injured during
training and has withdrawn from the bout.
ACA President Alexey Yatsenko recently informed Sherdog.com of
Khasbulaev’s withdrawal.
“Magomedrasul
Khasbulaev was diagnosed with a tear in the muscle fibers of
the gastrocnemius muscle of his left leg, and will not be able to
fight until the end of this year. However, the featherweight
championship fight will certainly take place at the December ACA
event,” Yatsenko said. “Froes will fly to Russia [soon] and will
stay to train for the bout. He will fight Marat
Balaev in ACA 116 headliner on Dec. 18.
“We will announce later the city of this event. And Magomedrasul
Khasbulaev will have a chance after he recovers to face the
champion.”
For Felipe
Froes, this will be the first defense of the championship belt,
which he took away from Salman
Zhamaldaev at ACA 110. The 28-year-old Brazilian is 18-4-1 as a
professional. In October 2017, he lost to Zhamaldaev by a split
decision at World Fighting Championship Akhmat 43, but exactly two
years later he defeated Zhamaldaev by unanimous decision in a
rematch at ACA 100. In his other two fights under the ACA banner,
Froes has bested Frantz
Slioa and Saifullah
Dzhabrailov.
Marat “The Motivator” Balaev is 11-2 as a professional. Zhamaldaev
defeated him at ACA 93 but he rebounded with a victory over
Diego
Brandao. He has also defeated the likes of Mukhamed
Kokov, Murad
Machaev and Adlan
Bataev. He owns nine wins via decision, one by TKO and one via
submission.
A bantamweight championship fight betwee Kurban
Gadzhiev (16-2) and Azamat
Kerefov (13-0) will now headline the ACA 113 card on Nov. 6 in
Moscow.
There are 8 other bouts were confirmed for ACA 113: Nodar
Kudukhashvili (17-6) vs. Abdul-Rahman
Dzhanaev (12-2); Shamil
Shakhbulatov (11-3) vs Walter
Pereira Jr. (15-4); Rashid
Magomedov (23-5-1) vs. Artem
Damkovsky (23-11); Rasul
Shovhalov (17-7) vs Cristian
Brinzan (8-4); Murad
Zeinulabidov (20-3) vs Maycon
Silvan (15-3); Alexander
Matmuratov (9-5) vs Kanat
Keldibekov (20-5); Islam
Omarov (8-0) vs Zamir
Aripshev (9-1) and Aslan
Shogov (6-1) vs Ruslan
Abiltarov (22-10).