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.

Like most fighters, Chistyakov doesn’t want to make excuses, but the list of things that unfolded prior to the card sound a heck of a lot like someone prepping for a country song.

“I won two fights to enter finals with Tomas Deak,” Chistyakov said in his native Russian. “The initial fight was slated for July 2017, and I was at peak, I’m telling you. But Deak got injured, and they postponed the finals until October. Not the best time for me: I overspent on trainings, broke up with my girlfriend, had a car accident, had injuries in trainings – everything was against me, and when the fight happened, I couldn’t win.”

Chistyakov has since rebounded with a pair of wins under the RCC banner, and he stands at 5-1 in is past six overall appearances. A member of Russia’s Rati fight team, Chistyakov now faces Petshi, who has won six of his past seven, with the lone loss coming under the Rizin banner.

Still, after his previous experiences, Chistyakov knows he’s far more prepared for victory than that terrible night.

“Working with Rati gives results, thank God,” Chistyakov said. “I’m ready for my next fight, and it would be nice if in each and every organization I would become a champion.”

Longtime American Top Team fighter Steve Carl also appears at RCC 4. The full card includes:

• Fabio Maldonado vs. Ivan Shtyrkov
• Sergey Martynov vs. Oleg Olenichev
• Nikita Chistyakov vs. Kevin Petshi
• Steve Carl vs. Evgeny Bondar
• Arthur Karavaev vs. Artur Pronin
• Daniil Erlikh vs. Rashad Galaychiev
• Yaroslava Kichigina vs. Vikoria Sklyarova
• Denis Izmodenov vs. Evgeny Popov
• Osipov Roman vs. Gizatullin Sultan
• Sviridov Atrer vs. Khamzin Ilyaz

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