CHELYABINSK, Russia (November 5, 2018) — Fists were flying last Friday night at M-1 Challenge 98 as ten of 12 fights ended prematurely, eight by way of knockout punches and two submissions, highlighted by Brazilian mixed-martial-arts veteran Bruno Blindado Silva‘s title-winning stoppage of previously undefeated M-1 Challenge middleweight champion Artem Frolov, in Chelyabinsk, Russia.

Silva (19-6-0) has taken M-1 Global by storm. He became the top middleweight contender by knocking out Russian MMA star Alexander Shlemenko (56-11-1) in the opening round of M-1 Challenge 93 last June. With his fourth-round knockout by punches of another Russian, Frolov (11-1-0), the power-punching Silva has how stopped 16 of his 19 defeated opponents during his outstanding pro career.

The 27-year-old Frolov, who was 9-0-0 in M-1 competition going into his second title defense last Friday versus Silva, had signed a UFC contract and he was scheduled to fight last month at UFC Moscow. He was forced to withdraw due to injury.

In the co-featured event another undefeated fighter was knocked off, when Russian welterweight Sergey Romanov (15-3-0) handed his Swiss opponent, Urs Pablo Ortmann (8-1-0), his first pro loss, by way of a three-round unanimous decision.

Kazakhstan bantamweight Sergey Morozov (13-4-0) won a three-round unanimous decision over Bair Shtepin (7-3-0), of Russia.

Russian middleweight Ivan Bogdanov kept his unbeaten record intact, improving to 6-0-0, when he punched out Frenchman Emmanuel “Papou Lele” Dawa (7-3-0) in the third round.

Russian welterweight Boris Medvedev (4-0-0) remained unbeaten, locking in a Rear Naked Choke on his fellow countryman, David Zakaryan (1-1-0) for a win by first-round technical submission.

On the preliminary card, late replacement Oleg Popov (4-1-0) registered a second-round technical knockout of fellow Russian heavyweight, Yuriy Fedorov (1-1-0, 1 NC), in round two, while Russian lightweight Magomed Magomedov (12-3-0) put Frenchman Arnaud Kherfallah(5-2-0) to sleep in the opening round.

French middleweight Jean “Panqueca” Petrick (9-3-0) made an impressive M-1 debut by submitting always dangerous Talekh “The Azerbaijan Terminator” Nadzhafzade (7-3-1) with a North-South choke, and Ivan Tsygelnik (2-1-0) won his second pro bout by way of a first-round technical knockout via punches versus Maksim Baruzdin (1-1-0) in a battle of Russian heavyweights.

Denis Sulimov (3-0-0) knocked out Iliskhan Merzhoev (2-1-0) in the opening round on punches in a match between Russian lightweights, Russian lightweight Rizvan Simbagaev (4-1-0) was too much for his Ukrainian rival, Alexey Shanin (2-1-0), who was stopped on punches midway through the third and final round, and Russian featherweight Nikita Barkhajov (2-0-0) blasted-out Agoney Romero (7-5-1), of Spain, in round one.

The 24 competing fighters represented eight different countries: Russia, Brazil, France, Ukraine, Switzerland, Spain, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.