Translated material
Calendar
For the first time, a Russian heavyweight will fight for the championship belt of one of the three most influential professional boxing organizations in the world. The fight will take place in the arena named after the great German boxer, Max Schmeling Halle. The 1998 “silver” women’s basketball world championship for us and the 2003 “bronze” European men’s volleyball championship took place here. This coming Saturday, perhaps, in the ring of the Berlin arena, one of the brightest pages will be written in the history of professional boxing in Russia. The 215-centimeter St. Petersburg giant Valuev had 42 fights during his career and won all of them, 31 times by knockout. However, the 32-year-old Russian has never had such serious opponents as Ruiz, so some experts are skeptical about the positive statistics of his fights.
This year, three rounds were enough for Nikolai to deal with the Swede Attila Levin and the American Clifford Etienne. The upcoming fight in Berlin has a 12-round format and is unlikely to end as quickly as the two previous fights of the St. Petersburg resident. In April, Ruiz defended his WBA title for the eighth time and lost to James Toney on points. The winner then tested positive for a doping test and Ruiz was declared the winner of the belt. In 47 fights, John was defeated five times, including by such famous boxers as Evander Holyfield, Roy Jones Jr. and David Tua. And at the dawn of his professional career, in 1993, Valuev’s opponent lost to Kostroma native Sergei Kobozev, although he was still competing in the first heavyweight division.
HOCKEY. December 15--18. ROSNO Cup. Moscow.
The third stage of the Eurotour will be decisive for the candidates for the Russian Olympic team competing in the Super League, because head coach Vladimir Krikunov is scheduled to announce the roster for the Winter Games on December 22. On Thursday our team meets the Swedes, a day later it will have a game with Finland, and the traditional December Moscow tournament will end with the Russia-Czech Republic match.
FOOTBALL. December 12--18. World Club Championship. Tokyo, Toyota, Yokohama (Japan). December 14-15. UEFA Cup. Group stage. 5th round.
By the will of the calendar, Russian clubs do not play in the final round of the group stage of the UEFA Cup - they have already played all four matches at this stage and gone on vacation. St. Petersburg's Zenit and the capital's Lokomotiv secured passage to the 1/16 finals, where the three best clubs from each of the eight quintets plus the teams that took third place in the Champions League groups will compete. The current UEFA Cup holder, CSKA, will have to wait for the results of their opponents. In order to continue defending the prestigious title, the army team must meet two conditions: on Wednesday, Dynamo Bucharest must lose away to Marseille, and the Bulgarian Levski must achieve at least a draw in an away match at the Dutch Heerenveen field. The situation for Valery Gazzaev’s team is complicated by the fact that the French and Sofia clubs no longer need anything, since they advanced to the next round of competition ahead of schedule.
BASKETBALL. December 13. ULEB Cup. 6th round. December 13--14. European Cup. Men. Second stage. 1st round. December 14-15. Euroleague ULEB. 7th round. FIBA Euroleague. Women. 8th round. Challenge Cup. Men. 1/8 finals. Return matches. European Cup. Women. 1/16 finals. Return matches. December 15, 17, 18. Super League. Men.
The first round of the preliminary stage of the ULEB Euroleague is ending. Basketball players from Partizan Belgrade, outsiders of Group C, will take to the floor of the capital's USC CSKA on Wednesday. Therefore, fans have the right to expect a fifth consecutive victory in the tournament from the “red-blues”. The second round of the ULEB Cup will begin. Russian clubs are still undefeated. UNICS will go to visit the Portuguese Queluz, which was defeated in the capital of Tatarstan with a difference of 37 points, the capital's Dynamo will meet in Belgrade with Red Star. In the starting round of the second stage of the European Cup, the following matches with our participants will be held: Dynamo (St. Petersburg) - BC Kiev (Ukraine), Cologne (Germany) - Dynamo (Moscow region), “Lokomotiv” (Rostov-on-Don) - “Zadar” (Croatia), “Khimki” - AEL (Cyprus).
Before the return games of the first round of the playoffs in two other European Cup tournaments under the auspices of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), all our teams retain a chance of reaching the next round, although not all managed to avoid defeats on the road. Here are the results of the meetings in the Women's European Cup: "Chaykhan" (Turkey) - "Spartak" (Moscow region) - 67:70, "Miskolc" (Hungary) - "Nadezhda" (Orenburg) - 79:70 , "Sibenik" (Croatia) - "Dynamo" (Kursk) - 83:68, "Caja Canarias" (Spain) - "Cevakata" (Vologda) - 61:64. Basketball players from Perm "Ural Great" beat "Dubrovnik" in Croatia in the Challenge Cup - 85:78. All return matches in these pairs are scheduled for Thursday.
CHESS. December 12--17. FIDE World Cup Knockout System. Khanty-Mansiysk.
Semi-finals and classification matches for 5th-8th, 9th-12th and 13th-16th places will take place on Monday and Tuesday; in case of a tie after two games, a tiebreaker will take place on Wednesday. From Thursday to Saturday, grandmasters will determine the winner of the World Cup and distribute the first 16 positions in the final table of ranks.
VOLLEYBALL. December 13--14. CEV Cup. 1/8 finals. First matches. December 14-15. Champions League. 6th round. Top Teams Cup. Main stage. 5th round.
Since the “mirror” calendar is practiced in the Champions League, Dynamo Moscow and Lokomotiv-Belogorye Belgorod will open the second round with meetings with the same teams they played last week. The Blue and Whites are playing against Olympiacos in Greece on Thursday, while the Railwaymen will host Buducnost (Serbia and Montenegro). Two days earlier, Uralochka met at home with the French Cannes, to which it lost 0:3 late on Thursday evening (16:25, 17:25, 21:25).
HANDBALL. December 12--18. World Championship. Women. Saint Petersburg.
BIATHLON. December 15--18. World Cup stage. Osrbli (Slovakia).
FIGURE SKATING. December 16--18. Grand Prix Final. Tokyo (Japan).
SPEED SKATING. December 17--18. Sprint stage of the World Cup. Inzel (Germany).
SKI RACING. December 15--18. World Cup stage. Canmore (Canada).
BOBSLED. December 17--18. World Cup stage. Cortina d'Ampezzo (Italy).