Alexander Yuryevich Stetsurenko is a Russian welterweight kickboxer, multiple Tatneft Cup champion, W5 World champion and GLORY kickboxer. As of 1 November 2018, he is ranked the #10 welterweight in the world by Combat Press.
Career
Stetsurenko is well known for having trilogy with best Russian kickboxer, Artem Levin. It all started in March 2008 for the WMC intercontinental title, where he was defeated by unanimous decision in five rounds. Later, on Tatneft Cup 2009 Final he became one of the very few to defeat Levin, dropping him two times in round 4 with corner retirement after that round and Stetsurenko became Tatneft Arena Cup champion for second time. Third fight was on November 19, 2010 on Battle of Champions V event with Levin taking second victory. Later Levin described Stetsurenko as the hardest opponent he has ever had to face and says fighting him is “physically and mentally exhausting.” On November 26, 2011 he participated in a Forward Challenge – European Grand Prix along with seven kickboxing champions, defeating Nahid Asadov and Ernestas Dapkus before facing Mareks Lavrinovics in the final. Mareks was more active in the ring and successfully worked with the legs, but one kick ended in Stetsurenko's knee and fight was stopped because of injury, making Stetsurenko tournament champion. They had a rematch the next year with the same epilogue. He fought once again for the Tatneft ArenaWorld Cup on October 20, 2012 rematching Hicham El Gaoui, of which he lost in Tatneft 2011 final in a super fight. This was another close fight, Hicham probably won first three rounds, but without knockdown so according to Tatneft's rules there was an extra round where Stetsurenko got the razor thin decision victory. On February 6, 2015, Stetsurenko was part of a one-night, four-man at Glory 19 to determine who would get the next title shot. In the semifinals, he faced Nieky Holzken and lost via unanimous decision. On April 23, 2016, Stetsurenko took over Errol Koning of the Netherlands during W5 Grand Prix KITEK which was held in Moscow, finalising a trilogy with Dutch opponent. Previous two bouts were chalked up in the favour of each of the fighters. In this Moscow title bout Stetsurenko won W5 World champion belt which after the fight he gave as a gift to a kid with restricted abilities who said that he is dreaming become a champion too.
