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They are the underground fighters the World Cup host doesn’t want you to see. This story will appear in ESPN The Magazine’e 60 russian fight club June 18 World Football issue.

Over nearly four decades on earth, while living in half a dozen cities and two countries, whether employed or not, happy or not, sober or not, I have never — not ever — punched someone. Of course Vova has punched someone. Vova lives in Moscow, on the edge of Russia’s capital. He says he has been punching people for years, says he loves punching people, says it is part of his identity. He thinks I am an alien, basically, and that a man without scars on his hands is no man at all. By any measure, Vova has a comfortable life. His mother is a flight attendant, and so his room in the family’s apartment has pictures and posters from the places he has traveled.

He is studying to be a graphic designer, and he loves surfing. Vova enjoys literature, particularly the writings of famed German novelist Erich Maria Remarque. Yet in the evenings or on weekends, Vova says, he goes to the forest. He says he is part of a group of hooligans known as IX Legion, which supports a professional soccer team, Dinamo Moscow, and which fights against other groups supporting other teams.