ST. PETERSBURG, Rússia (Janeiro 19, 2017) – M-1 Global has announced that 2016 M-1 Grand Prix middleweight champion Alexander “Tempestade” Shlemenko será a atração principal M-1 Desafio 75 em Moscou.

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 Desafio 75 será transmitido ao vivo de Moscou em alta definição em www.M1Global.TV. Os telespectadores vão poder assistir as lutas preliminares e card principal, registando-se registrar em www.M1Global.TV. Os fãs podem assistir a toda a acção em seus computadores, bem como sobre Android e da Apple smartphones e tablets.

Shlemenko (54-9-0. 1 NC, M-1: 4-0-0), a three-time Bellator champion, derrotou o ex-campeão do M-1 Challenge Vyacheslav Vasilevsky (see picture above with Shlemenko on right) last year in the M-1 Grand Prix Middleweight Championship semifinals and championship final, respectivamente, by three-round majority decision and third-round submission (afogador). 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.

Em sua última ação, 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,” Presidente M-1 Global Vadim Finkelchtein dito, “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, ainda. 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. Assim, throughout the past month, we were waiting for Shlemenko to receive permission to fight in Russia. Agora, we have arranged for him to fight on M-1 Desafio 75. We’ve done a great job to make this possible and now hope that, desta vez, 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), da Rússia, will defend his title against an opponent to be announced, due to originally announced Kazakh challenger, invicto Shaukat Rakhmonov (7-0-0, M-1: 4-0-0), withdrawing due to a knee injury.

Russian welterweight prospect Sergey “Lutador de rua” Romanov (10-1-0, M-1: 3-0-0) faces Russian veteran Magomed “A White Wolf” Sultanakhmedov (18-5-0, M-1: 10-1-0) no M-1 Desafio 75 cartão.

Caldwell (11-3-0, M-1: 0-0-0), lutando fora da Geórgia, 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 13^th season of The Ultimate 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 em M-1 Desafio 54, paragem Dzhambulat Kurbanov in the third round on punches in the Fight of the Night. Em 2015, Divnich lost his first title defense by third-round knockout to Mansour Barnaoui em M-1 Desafio 57. Em sua última luta, Artiom Damkovsky knocked out Divnich with a kick in the second-round of their fight this past September at M-1 Desafio 70.

INFORMAÇÕES:

www.M1Global.tv

@ M1GlobalNews

VFinkelchtein

@ M1Global

M-1 Desafio 74 – Fevereiro. 18, 2017 – St. Petersburg, Rússia

M-1 Desafio 75 – Março 3, 2017 – Moscou, Rússia