East vs West spotlights Ryan Belanger and Zurab Tavberidze ahead of Batumi
EVW used a June 26 livestream to turn Ryan Belanger vs. Zurab Tavberidze into a Batumi storyline, with both men tied to August 1.
East vs West pushed Ryan Belanger and Zurab Tavberidze into the spotlight with a June 26 EVW 25 livestream, using the segment to sell more than a matchup and start the Batumi story early. The event page puts Belanger vs Tavberidze on the main card for August 1 in Batumi, Georgia, and also lists a livestreamed press conference for the day before on the East vs West Armwrestling YouTube channel.
That rollout matters because EVW is not treating the card like a single-night reveal. The promotion has EVW 25 priced at US$19.99 for the PPV, with in-person tickets starting at US$59, and is stacking the show with title bouts that include Vitaly Laletin vs Alizhan Muratov, Oleg Zhokh vs Luka Tsinadze, and Daniel Procopciuc vs Vachagan Hovhannisyan. Batumi Cup 2026 sits in front of the main card too, at the Grand Bellagio Hotel on August 1 at 11:00, giving athletes another path into the weekend’s spotlight.
Belanger brings the cleaner recent form into the pairing. EVW’s rankings page has him at No. 10 in the men’s right-arm middleweight division at 95kg, 209lb, and his most recent result on the site is a 3-0 right-arm middleweight win over Jason Merlo at East vs West 24 in Little Rock on June 6. That same Merlo matchup also appears on the EVW 25 card as a preliminary bout, which means Belanger is being used twice across the Batumi weekend, once as a main-card piece against Tavberidze and again in a separate prelim slot.
Tavberidze arrives with his own EVW proof. He beat Maayan Shterengas 3-2 in left-arm middleweight action at East vs West 23 in Wuppertal on April 18, and EVW’s records show appearances dating back to 2022. The livestream gave that résumé a face and a voice weeks before the straps come out, which is the real point of the exercise: Belanger vs Tavberidze is no longer just a line on a card. It is a bout EVW has already framed for fans, complete with rankings, recent results, and a place in the Batumi build.
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