Vyacheslav Vasilevskiy (33-8) vs. Bogdan Guskov (10-1)
Fight Nights Global celebrates Christmas weekend with a doubleheader that starts on Thursday with the league’s Winter Cup entry. The lineup is heavy on prospects, but it also features some established names, including that of 41-fight veteran Vyacheslav Vasilevskiy. The former M-1 Challenge champion will serve as the next test for Bogdan Guskov, who enters the cage for this affair with a strong 10-1 mark.
Despite a career that extends back to 2008, Vasilevskiy is still just 32 years old. “Slava” got off to an excellent start in which he went 17-1 through his first 18 fights. This run included a light-heavyweight title reign with M-1 Challenge and a successful Bellator debut against Victor O’Donnell. He also notched stoppages over Xavier Foupa-Pokam and Tomasz Narkun along the way. After a decision loss to Maiquel Falcão in his second Bellator appearance, Vasilevskiy returned to his homeland and started another winning streak, this time spanning nine fights. He avenged the prior loss to Falcão during this stretch and also stopped Trevor Prangley and Ramazan Emeev en route to capturing the M-1 middleweight crown. He dropped the belt to Emeev in a rematch that marked the beginning of a rougher patch for Vasilevskiy. Since the submission loss to Emeev, he has gone just 7-5 while never winning more than four in a row. He has added victories over Matt Horwich and Will Noland, but he has also suffered setbacks courtesy of Alexander Shlemenko (twice), Murad Abdulaev, Magomed Ismailov and Albert Duraev. Vasilevskiy has won just one of his last four fights.