While Russia’s Fight Nights Global has largely focused on the promotion’s domestic market, that’s going to change in 2018.

Doubling down on previous claims, Fight Nights Global President Kamil Gadzhiev said the promotion is planning on holding events in both the U.S. and Brazil in the upcoming year.

Following this past week’s Fight Nights Global 83 event in Russia, Gadzhiev said the company is going forward with plans for aggressive international expansion.

“We started already in Moscow,” Gadzhiev said. “We’ll continue in Slovakia. We’ll go to Brazil. We’ll go to United States.

“I think something big is going on. Twenty events, all high-level, and the most (important) thing is we need new names, big names. We need big fighter names. We need new talents, everything. We’ll work on that. We’re very focused on growing something big, building something very, very high-level.”

At this past weekend’s Fight Nights Global 83 event, Akhmed Aliev (17-4) claimed the promotion’s lightweight title with a spectacular spinning-kick knockout over Magomedsaygid Alibekov (9-1). The promotion is back in action just eight days later with Friday’s “Fight Nights Global 84: Deak vs. Shupanov” from Bratislava, Slovakia.

Gadzhiev declined to compare his organization to others on the international landscape but does intend for Fight Nights Global to become a more recognized brand over time. But he intends to let the quality of the shows speak for him.

“We just work,” Gadzhiev said. “We just do. We just show. We don’t speak; we just show what we do, so let’s see.”

For more on Fight Nights Global 84, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.

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