ST. PETERSBURG, Rusland (Januarie 19, 2017) – M-1 Global has announced that 2016 M-1 Grand Prix middleweight champion Alexander “Storm” Shlemenko wil kop M-1 Challenge 75 in Moskou.
It has also been announced that American lightweight Keon “The Black Assassin” Caldwell will make his M-1 Global debut versus former M-1 Challenge lightweight champion Maxim Divnich.
M-1 Challenge 75 sal live gestroom van Moskou in hoë definisie op www.M1Global.TV. Kykers sal in staat wees om die voorlopige gevegte en belangrikste kaart te kyk deur aan te teken op by te registreer www.M1Global.TV. Aanhangers kan al die aksie te sien op hul rekenaars, sowel as op Android en Apple smart phones en tablette.
Shlemenko (54-9-0. 1 NC, M-1: 4-0-0), a three-time Bellator champion, verslaan voormalige M-1 Challenge-kampioen Vyacheslav Vasilevsky (see picture above with Shlemenko on right) last year in the M-1 Grand Prix Middleweight Championship semifinals and championship final, onderskeidelik, by three-round majority decision and third-round submission (verstik). Shlemenko vs. Vasilevsky I & II were the M-1 Challenge 68 & 64 Fights of the Night.
In a much-anticipated All-Russian middleweight showdown, Shlemenko was supposed to fight reigning M-1 Challenge middleweight champion Ramadan Emeev, who was unfortunately injured during training camp, forcing him out of that match. Vasilevsky replaced Emeev against Shlemenko in the championship final.
In sy laaste aksie, Shlemenko stopped Kendall Grove in the second round of their main event fight on Bellator 162 last October in Memphis, Tennessee.
“Alexander Shlemenko fighting in Russia is always a significant event,” M-1 Global president Vadim Finkelchtein gesê, “as he is a true legend of Russian MMA. His fights always sellout arenas, no matter who his opponent. We all know that the story we started last year at M<-1 Grand Prix 2016 isn’t over, nog. The whole country is waiting for the fight between Russia’s two best middleweights – Alexander Shlemenko and Ramazan Emeev.
“Ramazan was injured and Shlemenko had contractual obligations with Bellator. So, throughout the past month, we were waiting for Shlemenko to receive permission to fight in Russia. Nou, we have arranged for him to fight on M-1 Challenge 75. We’ve done a great job to make this possible and now hope that, hierdie tyd, we will be able to complete this exciting story.”
Undefeated M-1 Challenge welterweight champion Alexey Kunchenko (15-0-0, M-1: 7-0-0), van Rusland, will defend his title against an opponent to be announced, due to originally announced Kazakh challenger, onoorwonne Shaukat Rakhmonov (7-0-0, M-1: 4-0-0), withdrawing due to a knee injury.
Russian welterweight prospect Sergey “Streetfighter” Romanov (10-1-0, M-1: 3-0-0) faces Russian veteran Magomed “Die Wit Wolf” Sultanakhmedov (18-5-0, M-1: 10-1-0) op die M-1 Challenge 75 kaart.
Caldwell (11-3-0, M-1: 0-0-0), fighting out of Georgia, is the US-based Island Fights champion. A powerful puncher who has nine knockouts in his 11 pro victories, Caldwell was supposed to compete in the 13ste season of Die uiteindelike Fighter, but he withdrew due to personal reasons. He has had several fights in World Series of Fighting.
A Ukrainian fighting out of Moscow, Divnich captured the vacant M-1 Challenge lightweight title in 2014 by M-1 Challenge 54, stop Dzhambulat Kurbanov in the third round on punches in the Fight of the Night. In 2015, Divnich lost his first title defense by third-round knockout to Mansour Barnaoui by M-1 Challenge 57. In sy laaste stryd, Artiom Damkovsky knocked out Divnich with a kick in the second-round of their fight this past September at M-1 Challenge 70.
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M-1 CHALLENGE EVENT CALENDAR:
M-1 Challenge 74 – Februarie. 18, 2017 – St. Petersburg, Rusland
M-1 Challenge 75 – Maart 3, 2017 – Moskou, Rusland
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