If you haven’t heard, the TatNeft Arena is a 9300-capacity sporting event center in Kazan, Russia. Yesterday, they hosted the first round of the 2015 TatNeft Cup, which will presumably wrap up next year. It is a male-only tournament, and the rules require each participant to wear groin protection. (http://www.tatneftarena.ru/ru/boi-tna/pravila-rules/universal-tna-rules.html) Unclear if that’s how the kickboxing event got its name.
As you’ll see in this video, the production value is appealing. And it is a perfectly colorful setting for the pinpoint flying knee, and a classic sideways timber to stiff-as-a-board KO at 2:12. Proving once again that everything is a little bit colder in Russia, they drag Alex Trofimov’s body to the side of the ring as Ljubo Jalovi poses for victory photographs.