PFL partners with Russian promotion linked to fight fixing & assaulting peaceful protestors

Karim Zidan delves into the PFL’s questionable partnership with RCC, a promotion linked to fight fixing and an attack on protestors. 

Last month, the Professional Fighters League (PFL) announced a series of one-night tournaments in various locations around the world that aims to find five new fighters to integrate into the 2020 roster.

So far, the league has inked deals with five separate promotions in Russia, Germany, Brazil, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Each organization will host a one-night tournament where the winner will move on to the 2020 PFL roster. The first finalized date is with UAE Warriors in Abu Dhabi, while the second is a lightweight qualifier tournament with Russian Cagefighting Championship (RCC), which will take place on Feb 22 at the RCC Martial Arts Academy in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

“This preseason, we’re excited to launch the PFL’s first-ever International Qualifier Series in Russia, a country known for producing elite MMA athletes and a key market for PFL’s global growth,” said Peter Murray, CEO of the PFL. “We look forward to seeing which RCC fighter can withstand the toughest test in MMA, fighting and winning twice in one night, to earn a contract with the PFL for the 2020 season.”

The four-fighter tournament will feature Timur Nagibin vs. Kazakhstan’s Muratbek Kasymbay and Mikhail Odintsov vs. Vladimir Kanunnikov. The winners of the semi-final bouts will then compete in the tournament final to vie for a spot in PFL’s 2020 roster.

However, while the PFL’s strategy is an interesting one, they have also selected a questionable partner in Russia. While RCC is one of the few thriving MMA organizations in Russia, the promotion has also been involved in shady business practices over the past few years, including alleged fight fixing and using fighters to attack protestors who opposed the construction of a new church that RCC’s owner was building. This article will delve into the promotion’s history, its oligarch investor, and the role it plays in the modern Russian MMA landscape.

A Copper Tycoon’s MMA Hobby

The man behind RCC is Igor Altushkin, one of the richest men in the Russian Federation. The oligarch began his career as a scrap metal trader in the early 1990’s before founding the Russian Copper Company (RMK), an organization that would go on to become Russia’s third-largest copper producer.

Altushkin, a native of Yekaterinburg, Russia, took an interest in combat sports in 2016. The billionaire’s RMK company co-founded the RCC Boxing Promotions (formerly known as Titov Boxing Promotion), which continues to host events across a variety of combat sports. Their first significant championship fight took place in November 2016 when Russian light-heavyweight Sergei Kovalev won his WBA, IBF, and WBO titles against Isaac Chilemba. The event aired live on HBO. Following the Kovalev fight, RCC Boxing brought in the likes of former UFC fighters Jeff Monson, Antonio Silva, and Gabriel Gonzaga to headline their shows against Ivan Shtyrkov, the poster boy for the promotion. While some of the events garnered attention from hardcore MMA fans, others were shrouded in controversy.

In May 2016, former UFC fighter Jeff Monson was scheduled to face Ivan Shtyrkov in the main event of an RCC Boxing event. Monson tore his right bicep ahead of the fight and attempted to withdraw from the event. Alexi Titov, the promoter at the time, insisted to fly Monson out to Ekaterinburg so that he could take part in an exhibition performance against Shtyrkov instead. Monson agreed to the stipulation but began to feel suspicious of the promoter over the next few days, particularly when he was not allowed to talk to Shtyrkov ahead of the exhibition.

Concerned that he was being set up, Monson attempted to pack his bags and leave. He was stopped by Altushkin, who, according to Monson, guaranteed that the fight would be nothing more than a simple exhibition bout. However, when the bell sounded for the opening round of the main event, Shtyrkov sent Monson tumbling to the canvas, targeted his injured arm, and forced him to tap in particularly violent fashion. The exhibition bout was added as an official loss on Monson’s record.

“I held on five seconds longer than I would have in a real fight,” Monson told Bloody Elbow in 2016. “I was just expecting him to let go. He didn’t.

RCC Boxing Promotion did not respond to a request for comment when requested in 2016.

By 2017, Altushkin founded a separate MMA promotion named Russian Cagefighting Championships (RCC), which debuted in November with Shtyrkov in the headlining slot. Since then, the promotion has hosted dozens of shows, including a May 2018 event headlined by former UFC fighter Gabriel Gonzaga and Aleksander Emelianenko, a convicted rapist who was once charged with kidnapping and sexual abuse. The event emphasized the promotion’s willingness to do business with unsavoury and controversial characters as long as it drew attention from combat sports fans.

However, the promotion’s most controversial moment took place in 2019 when fighters representing the RCC Martial Arts Academy attempted to violently disperse a group of protestors who opposed the construction of a new church in Yekaterinburg, Russia, leading to a national scandal involving the copper tycoon and his team of professional fighters turned thugs.

RCC’s Hired Muscle

In May 2019, activists appeared at the construction site for the St. Catherine Church in Yekaterinburg to protest the deforestation required for the construction of the church. The protestors started at the public garden near the construction site but allegedly tore through the fencing that separated the garden from the construction site, which is when athletes from the RCC academy arrived on scene.

The fighters reportedly intimidated the protestors, including the journalist on scene for investigative outlet Novaya Gazeta. They mocked, swore, and pushed through the crowds, while one of the athletes reportedly attacked a woman in the crowd and another allegedly used pepper spray to break up the protest. Among the fighters involved in the attack were WBO light-middleweight champion boxer Magomed Kurbanov and Ivan Shtyrkov, who at the time was signed with the UFC.

Photo by Valery Sharifulin\TASS via Getty Images

While it may seem strange for a group of fighters to take interest in activists protesting deforestation, there is a clear correlation between the church’s ongoing construction and the MMA fighters who came to defend it, and that is copper tycoon Igor Altushkin.

Altushkin is one of the founders of the St. Catherine Foundation, formed in preparation for the 300th anniversary of Yekaterinburg and to fund a new church named after the patron saint of Yekaterinburg to be built in time for the anniversary celebrations in 2023. The decision was taken to construct the church in a green zone within the city that featured a beautiful pond and a park filled with trees, all of which would have been removed during the construction process. However, a 2018 poll conducted by the Socium Foundation revealed that 42% of local residents did not support the construction, and only 22% reacted positively to the suggestion.

Despite the mixed response, Yekaterinburg officials decided to move ahead with the construction process, referring to the decision as “non-negotiable.” This led to activists gathering in the nearby public garden to protest against the deforestation required to build the church. As a result, Altushkin — one of the primary sponsors of the church’s construction — used a group of fighters from the fight club he founded to disperse the crowds in reportedly aggressive fashion.

Among the fighters that took part in the incident was UFC heavyweight Ivan Shtyrkov, who withdrew from his UFC debut in April. While Shtyrkov’s management declined to comment to BloodyElbow.com at the time, Shtyrkov later released a statement to Russian press.

”We came to help the guards raise the fence. There were no conflicts or threats from our team towards the residents. There were none. There were other people besides us. Someone is in favor of building a temple, who is against, and we should not forget about respect for someone else’s opinion - this is the basis of a normal society. All discussions should be in a peaceful way, and what happened at night is fundamentally wrong and should not be repeated.”

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Given that the PFL has spent the last couple of years restructuring its brand, it comes as quite a surprise that the organization decided to partner with one of Russia’s shadiest promotions for its upcoming show. When asked to comment on the situation, the PFL did not respond to a request for comment.