“BAZARA 0 Fight Club IV” has confirmed another major matchup for its September 12 event at Xiaomi Arena in Riga: Zaur “Shere Khan” Dzhavadov vs. Kristaps Zile!
The rematch brings back one of the most debated fights from “BAZARA 0 Fight Club III”, where Dzhavadov defeated Zile in a closely contested B0 Kick Fight title bout that immediately became the most controversial result that night.
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The first meeting between Dzhavadov and Zile was never just another fight on the card, either. Leading up to “BAZARA 0 Fight Club III”, the matchup was presented as a meeting between two of Latvia’s leading kickboxing names from different natural weight classes: Dzhavadov, the KOK World Welterweight Champion with championship experience across WKA, WAKO and KOK, moving up two weight classes; and Zile, a KOK European Light Heavyweight Champion and #1-ranked contender with experience in GLORY Kickboxing, Lion Fight and European competition.
The January fight ended with a disputed decision: Dzhavadov was announced as the winner and took possession of the “BAZARA 0 Fight Club” Pound-for-Pound Kickboxing Champion belt.
Although the fight had originally been scheduled for three three-minute rounds, an additional last-minute fourth round was held, after which Dzhavadov was declared the winner. The crowd loudly booed after the result, believing Zile had won, and after extended discussion, the decision was not changed.
BAZARA 0 representative Deniss Stepanovs acknowledged that the situation was unpleasant and said the organization was prepared to “meet halfway” with Zile in the future, including potentially improving the financial offer for the next “BAZARA 0 Fight Club”. Stepanovs also stated that the final decision belonged to the judges and that the score was 2:1 in favor of Dzhavadov, while noting that BAZARA 0 founder Daniil “Danik” Vesnenok had wanted to make a different decision.
Zile started strong, landing big combinations early, finding distance quickly and using knees effectively in close range. Dzhavadov began to recover in the second half of the first round, making the opener closer, but still suggested that Zile may have had the edge. In the second round, Zile’s footwork and kicks were stable, while Dzhavadov continued to find heavier punches with his hands. The third round only added to the debate; Zile looked more successful in exchanges early in the round, landed harder and more frequent shots as the pace rose, and appeared to have done enough across all three rounds to take the fight.
Zile referred to the fight as “stolen”, said he wanted only a fair result, and argued that if the belt could not be awarded fairly, it should have remained vacant for a future meeting. He also criticised the lack of publicly announced detailed scorecards and said the audience had seen the fight themselves. Zile additionally raised concerns about the size of the cage, arguing that as a taller fighter with long legs, he needed more space to work his kicks and maintain distance.
Dzhavadov rejected the accusation that he had been given a result he did not deserve. In a later statement, he said he and his team were “absolutely convinced” of his victory. He argued that he had been the aggressor, moved forward, applied pressure, blocked and absorbed shots in defence, landed accurate and accented strikes, and did not clinch or slow the fight down. Importantly, Dzhavadov also publicly welcomed the idea of a rematch, saying that to remove any remaining questions or complaints, he would gladly fight Zile again—but this time over five rounds.
The team at BAZARA 0 heard the complaints and have set up the rematch to have five rounds, three minutes each, and will even host judges Edward Strijkert and Tomasz Bałdyga from the international kickboxing promotion GLORY. Edward Strijkert was a judge at one of the biggest kickboxing fights in the world: Badr Hari vs. Rico Verhooven.
