Russian Cagefighting Championship (RCC) hosts an event this weekend in Russia, and Fabio Maldonado competes in the headlining bout, but there’s another fighter on the card whose life sounds more like country song. Sure, the granite-chinned Maldonado’s fighting nickname loosely translates to “The Iron Hillbilly,” but consider the case of Nikita Chistyakov (9-4-1), who meets France’s Kevin Petshi (15-4) on the same card, Saturday in Yekaterinburg. Chistyakov challenged in October 2017 for the Fight Nights Global bantamweight title against Tomas Deak but suffered a TKO loss in the contest’s opening round. It was the first – and to date, only – stoppage loss in Chistyakov’s professional career.
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