|
M-1 Challenge 76, April 22, in Ingushetia
|
|
MOSCOW (March 21, 2017) – M-1 Global has ordered an Interim M-1 Challenge bantamweight title fight, due to a long-term injury to reigning champion Pavel Vitruk, between top contenders Alexey Nevzorov and Movsar Evloev at M-1 Challenge 76, April 22, in Ingushetia, Russia.
Representing the famed Alexander Nevsky OEMK Team in Stary Oskol, Russia, the home gym for living legend Fedor Emelianenko, Nevsorov (12-2-0, M-1: 6-1-0) has won his last three fights, including a second-round stoppage of Andrey Lezhnev this past December at M-1 Challenge 73, and a three-round decision last September over Timur Nagibin at M-1 Challenge 70.
 Nevorov (pictured above) will be dropping down in weight from featherweight to bantamweight to fight for the title.
Also Russian fighter, Evloev (6-0-0, M-1: 6-0-0) is coming off the best victory of his young career, positioning himself for this title shot with a three-round decision over his much more experienced foe, American opponent Lee Morrison (see pictured below), at M-1 Challenge 73.
Known for his tremendous physicality, coupled with an excellent grappling game and diverse striking skill set, Nevzorov has been tabbed as a future MMA star.
 A featherweight match between Russian Timur Nagibin (8-2-0, M-1: 4-1-0) and Brazilian Diego D’Avila (18-5-0, M-1: 1-0-0) has also been announced for M-1 Challenge 76.
Nagibin is coming off an impressive third-round stoppage (punches) of Kurbanali Abdusalamov at M-1 Challenge 72 last November, while D’Avila won his M-1 Global debut last, choking out Zalimbeg Omarov for the M-1 Challenge 73 Submission of the Night.
INFORMATION:
Twitter & Instagram:
@M1GlobalNews
@VFinkelchtein
@M1Global
Facebook:
|
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (January 27, 2017) – American MMA veteran Paul “The Gentleman” Bradley has stepped up to meet the awesome challenge presented by 2016 M-1 Grand Prix middleweight champion Alexander “Storm” Shlemenko in the March 3rd M-1 Challenge 75 main event in Moscow.
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (January 23, 2017) – Undefeated M-1 Challenge welterweight champion Alexey Kunchenko will now be challenged by fellow Russian Maksim Grabovich, who has replaced injured Shavkat Rakhmonov, 
A strong Ukrainian with superior wrestling skills, Butenko (42-11-2, M-1: 9-1-0) is an eight-year MMA veteran who has found a welcomed home in M-1 Challenge competition and he has taken advantage of the opportunity. Riding a six-fight win streak, the 29-year-old Butenko captured the vacant M-1 Challenge lightweight title belt last June at M-1 Challenge 67, when he took a five-round unanimous decision over Artiom Damkovsky.
Butenko’s first title defense will be against one of the most popular MMA fighters in Russia, the fighting powerhouse Yandiev, who also is a strong wrestler, plus a solid Judo background. The rising lightweight star will be a certain fan favor because of his nationality as well as his style of fighting, resulting in first-round endings in all his pro fights to date.
Like Butenko, Branchuk (21-6-0, M-1: 1-2-0) also fights out of Ukraine. The 25-year-old fighter is a former M-1 Challenge bantamweight title challenger, who was riding an eight-fight into his last fight, in which he lost by fourth-round submission (choke) to the aforementioned Vitruk (see accompanying picture to left). In M-1 Challenge competition, Branchuk defeated Antun Racicone year ago, by way of a three-round split decision at M-1 Challenge 64.
Benkaci (13-7-0, (M-1: 2-1-0) is a grappling specialist from France. Known and highly respected for his great conditioning and endurance, he lost a disputed three-round decision in his M-1 Challenge debut to Nikita Chistyakov 1-½ years ago, but the talented Frenchman bounced back to knockout his last two opponents, Vadim Malygin andAlexey Naumov, respectively, by knee and punch.