Khasbulaev Exits ACA 113 Title Bout, Marat Balaev Now Meets Felipe Froes on Dec. 18

Absolute Championship Akhmat title contender Magomedrasul Khasbulayev, who was supposed to fight reigning featherweight king Felipe Froes at ACA 113 on Nov. 6 in Moscow, was injured during training and has withdrawn from the bout.

ACA President Alexey Yatsenko recently informed Sherdog.com of Khasbulaev’s withdrawal.

“Magomedrasul Khasbulaev was diagnosed with a tear in the muscle fibers of the gastrocnemius muscle of his left leg, and will not be able to fight until the end of this year. However, the featherweight championship fight will certainly take place at the December ACA event,” Yatsenko said. “Froes will fly to Russia [soon] and will stay to train for the bout. He will fight Marat Balaev in ACA 116 headliner on Dec. 18.

“We will announce later the city of this event. And Magomedrasul Khasbulaev will have a chance after he recovers to face the champion.”

For Felipe Froes, this will be the first defense of the championship belt, which he took away from Salman Zhamaldaev at ACA 110. The 28-year-old Brazilian is 18-4-1 as a professional. In October 2017, he lost to Zhamaldaev by a split decision at World Fighting Championship Akhmat 43, but exactly two years later he defeated Zhamaldaev by unanimous decision in a rematch at ACA 100. In his other two fights under the ACA banner, Froes has bested Frantz Slioa and Saifullah Dzhabrailov.

Marat "The Motivator" Balaev is 11-2 as a professional. Zhamaldaev defeated him at ACA 93 but he rebounded with a victory over Diego Brandao. He has also defeated the likes of Mukhamed Kokov, Murad Machaev and Adlan Bataev. He owns nine wins via decision, one by TKO and one via submission.

A bantamweight championship fight betwee Kurban Gadzhiev (16-2) and Azamat Kerefov (13-0) will now headline the ACA 113 card on Nov. 6 in Moscow.

There are 8 other bouts were confirmed for ACA 113: Nodar Kudukhashvili (17-6) vs. Abdul-Rahman Dzhanaev (12-2); Shamil Shakhbulatov (11-3) vs Walter Pereira Jr. (15-4); Rashid Magomedov (23-5-1) vs. Artem Damkovsky (23-11); Rasul Shovhalov (17-7) vs Cristian Brinzan (8-4); Murad Zeinulabidov (20-3) vs Maycon Silvan (15-3); Alexander Matmuratov (9-5) vs Kanat Keldibekov (20-5); Islam Omarov (8-0) vs Zamir Aripshev (9-1) and Aslan Shogov (6-1) vs Ruslan Abiltarov (22-10).