The Power of the the Fist: A Nickolai Zhukov Story

Fighter profile of Nickolai Zhukov by Speedy Gonzaitev

A few years ago as I was wandering the streets of Bangkok looking for perspective fighters, after a long unsuccessful day of searching I wandered into a bar seeking a respite from a day's worth of futile efforts. However, upon entering the bar I saw a guy in his mid twenties fighting off a large group of teenagers with nothing but his fists. Impressed with the young man's performance I ask the bar tender who he is and he tells me his name is Nickolai Zhukov, a refugee from southern Russia who came here just before the Soviet Union fell. After the commotion ends, I buy the enigmatic brawler a round of the finest vodka I can afford and we discuss the possibility of him coming back with me to St Petersburg to bring his brawling style into a cage and see what happens.

After we got him to St. Pete�s I inquired into his background and discovered that his parents were both high ranking party officials that were killed during the riots following the fall of the Politburo. His uncle took him south to Thailand where he began training in boxing and did fairly well, going undefeated in 15 bouts with 12 KO's. As he grew older he branched out and started to learn some wrestling in the back rooms of bars and parking lots. He was the kind of guy who never ran from a fight no matter how big the guy was, he came out swinging until one of them was on the ground out cold. .

Shortly after arriving in St Pete I signed him up for a bout to see how he would do. His opponent was another boxer who had finished his opponents in all of his victories, both in a vicious fashion. So coming into the fight we were planning on exploiting the obvious hole that was his opponent�s ground game and it went exactly to plan with Zhukov walking away with the decision victory. Shortly there after he signed with Black Hand Fight Championships in St Pete's to their Heavyweight division. Being only 210 lbs Zhukov is a tiny heavyweight but Zhukov told me he likes challenges so we accepted the contract and the first fight. .

Zhukov's first opponent in BHFC was an all round fighter not particularly good at any one area so Zhukov and I decided to exploit his enormous boxing advantage to try to end the fight early. Leading up to the fight we focused mainly on getting him in shape for competition. .

Zhukov walks forward and throws a big overhand right! Elf drops to the floor like a sack of potatoes! Zhukov swarms on him with more punches until the referee wrestles him away from Elf's unconscious body! Wow, that was brutal! .

With that quick finish, Zhukov was rearing to get back into the cage, and put his prowess on display yet again. Zhukov's next opponent was a grappler so the plan was to lay back and look for a big shot to end it early and get out of there with the W. After a very rocky start to the fight where Zhukov was on his back fighting off submission attempts, Zhukov forced a stand up and proceeded to knock his opponent on his ass twice with a heavy combination and uppercut before the end of the first round. Coming into round 2, Zhukov has all the momentum then right off the bat, Zhukov gets another knock down this time by way of another uppercut and Zhukov lets him up again. Then, just after the 2 minute mark:

Zhukov drops Vaska with a straight left! Oh this is bad for Vaska! Zhukov dives in and starts dropping bombs - the referee has no choice but to step in and save him!.

After that fight, Zhukov reeled off another 3 straight wins by KO or TKO before losing the first of 3 start fights by submission, two to the same opponent. After that last submission loss, Zhukov has down in the dumps, but managed to rededicate himself to building up his defensive ground skills as he signed with Holmgang based in Helsinki, in his proper weight class of light heavyweight. Upon entering Holgang, Zhukov was in a bad mood as he entered the cage against another striker: .

Zhukov dances in with a quick combination. Apae is being worked over with jabs and crosses. Oooh, a right straight from Zhukov snaps Apae's head back. Apae stumbles backwards against the cage. Zhukov steps forward and delivers a right cross that connects with Apae's jaw, simultaneously knocking him out and sending his mouthpiece into the crowd! There's a worthy souvenir for the fans. This one is over folks. Apae just didn't come prepared..

After that brutal finish, Zhukov proceeded to finish his next 3 opponents with his devastating hands as he now has the nickname 'Thunder' because of his brutal punching power. Sitting at #2 in the light heavyweight division at Holmgang, Zhukov got a shot for the title against the previously undefeated Super Man. Lets just say it didn't last long:

Zhukov walks forward and throws a big overhand right! Man drops to the floor like a sack of potatoes!

You guys can figure out the rest. With the title fresh on his waist and riding a 5 fight with 5 straight finishes Zhukov was riding high going into the toughest fight of his career at that point. With an opponent having him beat in every primary as well as being a better boxer on paper, I knew Zhukov's best bet to retain the title was to outwork Dunbar and that�s exactly what he did. Zhukov threw over 120 punches to Dunbar's 40. Zhukov just wore him out early and Dunbar just couldn�t handle the pace, though a small chink appear in Zhukov's armor as he was manhandled in the clinch. .

Going into his second title defense, Zhukov was pumped and ready to exploit the week ground game on his opponent, Zhukov did exactly that forcing the stoppage due to Cuts just before the end of the first round. riding the 7 fight winning streak Zhukov was entering the toughest fight of his career against an opponent who could very well exploit Zhukov's weakness that no one outside of Dunbar had really taken advantage of which was Zhukov's limited clinch skills. Far to say Zhukov got destroyed in the clinch but managed to avoid being TKO'd or KO'd by strikes and fell by TKO due to a Cut. With his title gone and being in his physical prime of his career where will Zhukov go? How many more fights does he have left? One thing is for sure, if you step in the cage with Thunder, don't leave your chin behind.

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