Russian AMC middleweight champion, European, and World kickboxing champion, Vladimir Mineev gets into the Octagon for a battle with Brazilian Fernando Rodrigues Jr. at the CSKA Arena in Moscow. The battle taking place in the heavyweight division is on the undercard of the Ren TV fight club series. Ahead of the battle, Mineev paid tributes and dedicated the fight to his younger brother who died fighting in Ukraine. Rodrigues Jr. has described his opponent as the toughest fight in his career. The about will take place on November 18 and will be based on Kickboxing rules. It will last for five rounds of three minutes each.
Kickboxing: Ren TV Fight Club Heavyweight
Location: CSKA Arena in Moscow, Russia
Date: 18-11-2022: 23:15
Where to watch: Ren TV
Vladimir Mineev
The 32-year-old is a kickboxing great and a very good mixed martial artist. He became the kickboxing champion of Russia in 2008 and also won a gold medal at the European championships. As a professional, he became the WKA world champion in 2012. He defended his title in 2013 and 2014. He also debuted in MMA in 2014 where he has amassed sixteen wins from eighteen fights and won and retained the AMC Fight Night’s Middleweight championship. His last MMA fight was just over one year ago when he retained his Middleweight championship with a TKO over Magimed Ismailov. This past September he TKO’ed Erko Jun at the Cup of Lotus event when the referee stopped the kickboxing bout in the third round. That duel was his first kickboxing fight since 2014 when he defeated Sebastian Ciobanu via a second-round TKO.
This is one of the toughest opponents for me. He is very large, about 120 kg of lean muscle mass. Don't forget we don't have doping controls and the guy is from Brazil, he looks perfect. I'm now 100% sure that he is stuffed utterly.
Vladimir Mineev
Tale of the Tape
- Age: 32
- Height: 184cm
- Total (kickboxing): 27
- Record: 25-2-0
Fernando Rodrigues Jr.
“Santo Forte” is a 35-year-old Brazilian heavyweight from São Paulo. His nickname means “Holy Power”. Rodrigues Jr. has been active for ten years. He lost his last fight via split decision to Sergey Bilostenny in May. The Brazilian is a very aggressive fighter. He hits very hard and is quite mobile in the cage. Right-handed, yet he attacks in an unpredictable way, making it hard for his opponents to predict where the next shot will be coming from.
The first two rounds I will dodge, try to exhaust him as much as possible, and I plan to take the third and championship rounds, stand in the center of the ring, actively attack, fail, counterattack and take out this story in the class. I do not hope for a quick end to the fight, I do not expect that it will be possible to do this in the first rounds. I expect to go the whole distance and be tactically a cut above. This is obvious, because there is a big difference in weight.
Vladimir Mineev
Tale of the Tape
- Age: 35
- Height:191 cm
- Reach: 196 cm
- Total (MMA): 20
- Record (MMA): 13-7-0