IBA brings Pro Champions Night to Russia

 

Saint Petersburg's KSK Arena will stage a major boxing event on 4 May featuring six world champions from Dubai 2025 and additional bare knuckle bouts as part of the show, with the full fight card yet to be confirmed.

With its imperial profile and unmistakable cultural identity, Saint Petersburg, historically regarded as the country's most European city, is preparing to host one of the most ambitious events in the recent calendar of the International Boxing Association.

On Monday 4 May, the venue - also known as Sibur Arena - will stage Pro Champions Night. The event is designed to combine elite boxing with an entertainment-driven approach. It is located in the Petrogradsky district, north of the historic centre, and has a capacity of 7,120 spectators. The arena is equipped to host both sporting competitions and large-scale entertainment events.

The card will be headlined by six reigning world champions, all of whom secured gold medals at the Dubai 2025 World Championships, ensuring a high technical standard. The federation aims, through this format, to further promote its athletes within a professional environment with global visibility.

In parallel, the programme will include additional bouts under a bare knuckle format as part of the show, a move intended to broaden the event's appeal without altering the rules of traditional boxing promoted by the organisation. This discipline, recently added to the federation's portfolio, retains the technical base of boxing, but without gloves, and forms part of an evolving format within its competitive structure.

KSK Arena (Sibur Arena) in Saint Petersburg, venue for Pro Champions Night.

Facebook/ KSK Arena

The venue is also expected to become a focal point for the international boxing community, with the anticipated presence of well-known figures, sports celebrities and elite athletes. Meanwhile, the organisation continues to finalise the full fight card, with further details - including these complementary match-ups - set to be announced in the coming days.

Set in a city known as the 'Venice of the North', for its network of canals and its baroque and neoclassical architecture, the event will add a distinctive visual dimension to a format that combines competition and entertainment. In this context, the occasion reinforces IBA's strategic direction towards delivering internationally focused events that integrate high performance with new ways of presenting boxing.