Two Olympic medallists are switching combat sports, training footage hints at intense preparation and an Arena showcase this summer.<\/p>\n
Olympic medalists Zhan Beleniuk and Parviz Nasibov are preparing for their debut in mixed martial arts. The Ukrainians, at the final stage of their athletic careers, will venture into the world of MMA.<\/p>\n
Promo clips for Arena, the league\u2019s new promotion, appeared on the league\u2019s Instagram account. The organization is led by former UFC fighter Ludvik Sholinyan, who has taken on the role of president.<\/p>\n
The promo video also features other MMA representatives \u2013 the brothers Dmytro and Vladyslav Parubchenko, Bovar Khanakov, and Artem \u201cAggressor\u201d.<\/p>\n
The opponents\u2019 names for Beleniuk and Nasibov are currently under wraps.<\/p>\n
Outlook for Future Fights and the Athletes\u2019 Path<\/p>\n
For Beleniuk, this will be his first appearance in MMA and his first bout since ending a 24-year career in Greco-Roman wrestling. The well-known Ukrainian athlete ended his competitive career after earning a bronze medal at the 2024 Olympic Games, completing a full set of medals.<\/p>\n
Parviz Nasibov will also debut in Arena\u2019s promotion \u2013 a two-time Olympic medalist (silver in 2020 and 2024). Unlike Beleniuk, Nasibov continued his athletic career: his last participation was at the 2025 World Championship, where he finished eighth, but boosted his world ranking.<\/p>\n
It is noted that the tournament will take place on July 11 under the Arena banner. The organization\u2019s president is former UFC fighter Ludvik Sholinyan.<\/p>\n
In Lviv, a mixed martial arts tournament \u201cIdu na Vy. Under the Sign of the Lion\u201d was also held, which confirmed the preparation of Ukrainian athletes for future debuts in MMA.<\/p>\n
Events around the debuts of Beleniuk and Nasibov are drawing heightened interest from fans: the combination of classic wrestling with the dynamics of mixed martial arts promises spectacular fights and new faces on the Ukrainian MMA stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two Olympic medallists are switching combat sports, training footage hints at intense preparation and an Arena showcase this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[239592,239593,239591,49,48,641,239594,638,239595,239596,44,82,239597],"class_list":["post-642970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-arena-league","tag-belenyuk","tag-belenyuk-nasibov-mma-debut-arena-league-ludvik-sholinyan-ukrainian-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-ludvik-sholinyan","tag-mma","tag-mma-debut","tag-nasibov","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-ukrainian-mma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}