The second edition of the Belt & Road Fighting Tournament will bring mixed martial artists to Changping Gymnasium in suburban Beijing later today. A total of seven fights will take place, including three free combats and four MMA bouts. Fourteen fighters from six countries – host nation China, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, and Thailand – will square off in this event. 

The competitors are divided into Group Red and Group Blue. The red team is composed of fighters from China, while combatants from the other five countries will make up the blue squad.

The fighters include big names like three-time European champion and two-time World Cup winner Dmitry Baranov. The Belarusian has 16 wins from 19 fights, including seven knockouts. Competing with him in the 77-kilogram free combat is China’s Chen Zhikang. The 22-year-old has 17 victories in 20 fights, including seven KOs.

Another eye-catching bout will be the 70kg free combat, with three-time Ukraine Kick Boxing Championship titleholder and five-time National Thai Boxing Championship belt winner Dmytro Nikokoshev competing against Chinese rising star Zhang Chunyu. The 22-year-old won the 70kg Beijing Championship last year, and took part in the Kun Lun Jie World Top Eight in 2015, claiming the 71kg title. He also won a 67kg belt in Thailand in 2011.

The event will have two special guests: actress, anchor, and singer Liu Yan, and the first female professional pool player to compete full-time on the WPBA Tour, Pan Xiaoting. 

Pan’s growing list of achievements in billiards has made her one of China’s favorite female athletes. The two will be cheering on the local fighters during the tournament. The stars are also shareholders in the New Filman Group, an investor in this tournament.

The founder of the company Beijing Combat Investment, Yang Yanjun, told CGTN that, in order to ensure the authenticity of the fights, they invited top referees from the US and Russia to this event. The list includes the world’s third-ranked official, Jason Herzog, and highly-respected Russian ref Dmitry Sazonov.

The tournament organizers plan to invite 65 fighters from "Belt and Road" countries, as MMA, free combat, and boxing are popular forms of competition in the region. The tournament will be divided into preliminaries, annual title showdowns, and a final championship event. There will be six to eight preliminaries and one annual title showdown each year, with the venture expected to run for 15 years.