Best Top Dog FC Fighters of All Time (Top 10 Ranked)
Top Dog Fighting Championship was founded in Moscow in 2020 by Danil "Regbist" Aleyev and grew from parking-lot shows during COVID into sold-out events at the CSKA Arena. The promotion's hay-bale ring format -- bare knuckle boxing in a confined space, no gloves, three-round bouts -- has produced one of the deepest rosters in modern bare knuckle. This list ranks the ten most important fighters in Top Dog FC history by record, finishes, and contribution to the promotion's identity.
Only fighters with profiles on this site are included. For more, see Top Dog FC best fights and the Top Dog FC schedule.
10. Kirill
The 9-4 middleweight workhorse and one of Top Dog FC's most consistent performers across multiple cards. Kirill is the kind of fighter every promotion needs -- technically sound, mentally composed, dependable to deliver competitive bouts. He represents the depth of the Top Dog roster rather than its peak.
9. Marcel Khanov
The middleweight/welterweight bare knuckle specialist. Khanov fights like a man who never needed gloves -- adjusted stance, technique tuned for the unfiltered force of ungloved combat, defensive posture built for an environment where every punch counts. He is one of the purest examples of bare knuckle specialization on the Top Dog roster.
8. Valeriy Zabotin
The Russian workhorse. Zabotin wins through volume rather than power -- output, accumulated punches, and the kind of work rate that grinds opponents down. His fights are not always pretty but they are always effective. He is the blue-collar end of the Top Dog roster, where the result matters more than the highlight.
7. Alexey Melnikov
The veteran with multiple appearances across Top Dog FC's timeline. Melnikov is one of the promotion's most reliable returning competitors at middleweight/light heavyweight, accumulating the kind of in-ring experience that comes only from sustained time in the hay-bale environment. His tenure connects newer Top Dog cards to the founding period.
6. Maxim "Lightning"
The 10-3 welterweight standout. Maxim is the technical end of the Top Dog roster -- speed, fight intelligence, and the ability to read opponents and adapt mid-fight. In a promotion where heavyweight power dominates the headlines, he proved that lighter fighters generate equal excitement through skill and precision.
5. Evgeny Shishkov
The technician. Shishkov boxes in the hay-bale ring rather than brawling, with the kind of precision and discipline that makes opponents miss and pay. In a format built on raw violence, his pure technical striking is an outlier that wins fights through skill rather than spectacle.
4. Denis Dula
The knockout machine. Dula's hands carry the kind of concussive authority that turns competitive Top Dog bouts into sudden, dramatic finishes, and his record of stoppages has made him one of the most electrifying fighters on the bare knuckle circuit. In a format with no glove padding, his power is one of the most fight-ending threats the promotion has produced.
3. Alexander "Drago" Shapovalov
The Russian heavyweight pocket fighter and the other half of one of Top Dog's most legendary bouts -- the bloodbath against Gia "The Ogre" Torchinava. Drago's style is to stand directly in front of his opponent and trade leather, banking on the fact that his hands are heavier than whatever is coming back. It is thrilling to watch and punishing to endure.
2. Gia "The Ogre" Torchinava
The Georgian-Russian heavyweight pressure machine. The Ogre's career is built on walking forward through punishment to deliver his own, and his war with Drago Shapovalov stands as one of the most brutal spectacles Top Dog has ever produced. He is the fighter who keeps coming forward no matter what -- relentless pressure, iron chin, the chin of a man bare knuckle audiences love above all others.
1. Naim "Samurai" Davudov
The Top Dog FC Middleweight Champion and -- by available evidence -- the most skilled fighter on the roster. Davudov is ranked #6 pound-for-pound bare knuckle by Bare Knuckle Nation, fights at 6'1" with a 73.6" reach, and works from a kickboxing foundation. The Azerbaijan-born champion is a technician in a brawler's promotion: precision, distance management, and ring intelligence that separates him from the rest of the roster. His title makes the case directly.
Special Mention: Danil "Regbist" Aleyev
The promotion's founder and CEO competes on his own cards at 16-4 in bare knuckle. Aleyev is not on the main top-10 because his role as both promoter and active fighter creates a unique category, but his record and his impact -- building the largest bare knuckle promotion in Eastern Europe from nothing during COVID -- makes him the single most important figure in Top Dog FC history. He defeated Alex Terrible at Top Dog 37 and continues to fight on his own cards.
How This List Was Built
Davudov tops the ranking because he holds the middleweight belt, has international P4P recognition, and represents the technical ceiling of the roster. The Ogre and Drago sit at #2 and #3 because their war against each other is the single most viewed Top Dog moment outside of Aleyev's own bouts. The middle and lower portions reflect roster depth -- knockout artists (Dula), technicians (Shishkov), volume fighters (Zabotin), workhorses (Kirill, Khanov, Melnikov, Maxim).
Honourable mentions: Ruslan "The Bear" (7-3 heavyweight contender) and Alex Terrible (Slaughter to Prevail vocalist crossover) are both legitimate top-10 cases, with Alex Terrible drawing the largest casual audience of any Top Dog fighter.
