Our world Thai boxing champions are turned into singing mafiosi

Having returned home from the world Thai boxing championship, champion Vital Hurkou and his coach Dzmitry Pyasetaksi started singing on the stage disguised as American gangsters.
The fighters took part in an ONT’s project “Wonderful five-3”. The show will be demonstrated on TV on October 10 at 21.05 CET.

Female football players tried to surprise judges with bright costumes.


The team of fighters – Vital Hurkou, Dzmitry Pyasetski and three karatists – competed with a team of female football players. Their performance was accompanied with live music by Apple Tea band. The teams had to dance and sing. The girls took off their boots and turned into ordinary backstreet girls singing Bianca’s “There was dancing”. The fighters took off their kimonos and dressed like Mafiosi singing “Manhattan” by “Banderos”. Vital Hurkou sang rap and his coach sang solo. The eyes of the judge, Aleaksei Hlyastou, were popping out with amazement.
 
Alyaksei Hlyastou: “I was impressed but I was not surprised. I said that the guy’s performance was like a Broadway show. They worked a lot on it. Interestingly, one of the vocalists (Dzmitry Pyasetski - ERB) had a falsetto. They are champions who turned into “men in black”. It was a good, interesting and professional performance”.

The show was recorded in a sports arena “SKA-Uruchie”. The studio was packed. A stylist Dasha Mikalayeva was one of those who came to watch the sportsmen’s performance:

Dasha Mikalayeva: “It’s amazing. I did not expect it from Vitalik (Hurkou - ERB) and the other guys. I thought I was going to laugh because I did not expect Vitalik to be a good singer. The same can be said about the others - they look like austere men. Then I saw them in Michael Jackson-like costumes and thought: “That’s it. I do not know them, I will hide and then run away”. But I was shocked when they started their performance: I sang, clapped my hands and was proud of being acquainted with them”.

Vital Hurkou (in the centre) sang rap and his coach Dzmitry Pyasetski (on the left) sang solo



It turned out that the coach, Dzmitry Pyasetski, who surprised the jury so much, used to be a rocker in his youth. He did not refuse his disciple when Hurkou asked him to take part in the show.  

Dzmitry Pyasetski: “I agreed. We came and did our breathing exercises. Our teacher clutched her head after our first try – she said it was no use. She said that we were anxious. We tried again 10 minutes later. I understood that I could sing in alt. Every sportsman did better during the second try”.

Dzmitry Paysetski became a world Thai boxing champion in 1996. It was the first important boxing title belonging to a former Soviet citizen. He had to quit music completely.

Dzmitry Paysetski: “I was interested in rock music like many others and was going to be engaged in it. We gave performances in the Pioneers’ House and somewhere else. We rehearsed at home. Most attention was paid to instrumental music. However, my guitar skills were becoming rusty. I played the guitar less and less often”.


A comic presenter Yauhen Bulka did not believe that Paysetski was singing live at first and asked him to sing without the ensemble. He voted for the fighters when he made sure. He and Hlyastou helped the fighters make it to the final. 

The sportsmen will get 25 million Belarusian roubles if they win in the show “Wonderful five-3”. Anyway, it will be enough to buy new kimonos and mufflers.

Photo by Paulina Malyavanaya