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Boxing Day on Red Square sets new Guinness record

Two-time Olympic boxing champions Olga Saitova and Alexei Tischenko taught 3,000 boxing fans in Moscow’s Red Square

MOSCOW, July 23. /TASS/. On Saturday, July 22, the Red Square in Moscow hosted the day of Russian and world boxing. The event was attended by Chairman of the Supreme Supervisory Council of the Russian Boxing Federation and the head of the Russian President's Security Service Alexei Rubezhnoy, Secretary General of the Russian Boxing Federation Umar Kremlev, President of the International Boxing Association (AIBA) Wu Ching-kuo, President of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Alexander Zhukov and many others.

Throughout the day, various activities were taking place on Red Square, and the Boxing Day ended with a festive salute.

During the holiday, Wu Ching-kuo apporved the initiative to hold the International Boxing Day annually on July 22.

Setting a Guinness record

Boxing Day began with the laying of flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The heads of the Russian Boxing Federation and AIBA, as well as boxing veterans and active athletes took part in the ceremony.

Large-scale training classes were held on Saturday. Two-time Olympic boxing champions Olga Saitova and Alexei Tischenko taught 3,000 boxing fans in Moscow’s Red Square. Independent witnesses, retired world professional boxing champions Nikolai Valuev and Natalia Rogozina were on hand to verify for the Guinness World Record book. Similar training drills were held across Russia

The previous record in terms of the number of participants in boxing classes was established in Moscow in 2015. Then American Floyd Mayweather, Jr. was the coach for 791 amateur boxers.

Professional fights

The evening of professional boxing was the main event of the holiday was. The guests of the competition were welcomed by the legendary voice of boxing, American ring-announcer Michael Buffer.

In one of the main fights of the evening, former World Champion of the World Boxing Association (WBA) Fyodor Chudinov defeated Argentinean Jonathan Barbadillo with a technical knockout in the second round.

The main fight was between Russia’s Mikhail Aloyan and Nicaragua’s Ian Marvin Solano for the silver world champion title of the World Boxing Council (WBC) in the weight category up to 52.2 kg.

Aloyan knock Solano down in the eighth round. However, the Russian boxer failed to finish the fight prematurely. After the 12-round duel, all the judges gave victory to Aloyan.

Boxing Day will be held in Russia every year on July 22. As Secretary General of the Russian Boxing Federation Umar Kremlev told journalists, in 2018 the festival will also take place on Red Square.