Despite Kashinsky's home-ring advantage, the 30-year-old Sands is confident in his ability to come out on top.
"I am in the best shape of my career and I feel great, focused and ready to take care of business," Sands said in an email Thursday.
Sands was supposed to have his first international fight in Germany last March for the International Boxing Organization's intercontinental world cruiserweight title, but his opponent called off the fight due to injury.
Sands has spent the last few months preparing for today's fight.
"We had several different sparring partners come in to give me fresh guys all the time, worked harder than any other training camp, studied tape and just prepared mentally and physically like I always do," Sands said.
Mike McKean, Sands' coach and co-manager, said training for this fight has not differed from previous fights.
"Yes, this is the biggest fight of his career, but we don't want to change things if they aren't broken, just sharpen them a little bit," McKean said. "He is so fast, strong, sharp and mentally prepared for this fight, it's scary."
Sands (20-2, 18 knockouts) defeated Mengistu Zarzar in his last fight Aug. 25 at Black Bear Casino Resort in Carlton. Sands has won five straight bouts and is ranked No. 6 in the U.S. and No. 47 in the world in the BoxRec.com cruiserweight rankings. He held the World Boxing Association-North American Boxing Association U.S. cruiserweight title before vacating the belt to pursue other fights.
The 31-year-old Kashinsky (14-0, 13 KOs) remains undefeated and is ranked No. 37 in the world in the BoxRec.com cruiserweight rankings.
"Yuri (Kashinsky) has power, and an awkward style," McKean said. "He has the home fans behind him and will come after Sands for the first couple of rounds, so Sands is going to have to weather the initial storm."
Sands was adopted into the U.S. from Haiti at 18 months old and graduated from Floodwood High School in 2005. When he's not training at Impact Sports Training, a CrossFit gym in Lincoln Park, Sands works as a supervisory paraprofessional at Duluth East High School.
While Sands has so far only fought in the Midwest, his co-manager, John D'Auria, said fighting internationally will help Sands "be world known, make more money, get world experience, learn and understand boxing in other cultures and how the sport is represented differently, and to get ranked higher to possibly get a shot at a world title."
Watch the fight
Duluthians can watch the fight at matchtv.ru/boxing at about 10 a.m. today.
https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/sports/4374600-boxing-sands-fight-russian-title
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