M-1 Challenge 64: Shlemenko vs Vasilevsky - February 19 (OFFICIAL DISCUSSION)

M-1 CHALLENGE 64
February 19, 2016
Sport Complex Olimpiysky  
Moscow, Russia

Main Card:
Alexander Shlemenko (51-9)  vs. (27-3) Vyacheslav Vasilevsky
Main Event | M-1 Gran Prix 2016 Semi-Final | Middleweight | 185 lbs (84 kg)
Denis Smoldarev (11-1)        vs.         (24-6) Alexander Volkov
Co-Main Event |   Title Fight | Heavyweight | 265 lbs (120 kg)
Joe Ray  (13-4)                     vs.   (10-2) Nodar Kudukhashvili
Main Card | Middleweight | 185 lbs (84 kg)
Pavel Vitruk (12-2)                vs.            (4-0) Sergey Morozov
Main Card | M-1 Gran Prix 2016 Semi-Final | Bantamweight | 135 lbs (61 kg)
Vitali Branchuk (20-5)                vs.            (18-6) Antun Račić
Main Card | M-1 Gran Prix 2016 Semi-Final | Bantamweight | 135 lbs (61 kg)


M-1 Heavyweight Champion Marcin Tybura leaves M-1 belt upon an agreement with M-1 Global Management, to be able to complete his negotiation with UFC. Therefore the M-1 Global Heavyweight Belt is proclaimed vacant.
 
Denis Smoldarev (11-1), Garant Fight Team, Estonia, is one of the most promising heavyweights outside the UFC. He's only 25 years old, but had already defeated Ante Delija, Chaban Ka, Maro Perak and many other experienced heavyweights. His only defeat came from Marcin Tybura. Now Smoldarev can take M-1 Heavyweight Championship.
 
Alexander Volkov (24-6), Strela Promotion, former 2 times Bellator Heavyweight Gran-Prix Champion, returns to Russia to add M-1 heavyweight belt to his collection.
 
The fight of 2 heavyweights will headline the first M-1 event in 2016 - M-1 Challenge 64, that is set for February 19th, Moscow.

 

Fucking sucks UFC snatched Tybura. On the plus side, this is a great idea for a title fight. I'm not an expert on M-1 but you can count on them for heavyweights.

^That does suck but this will be a good title fight.

Mansour Barnaoui (12-3) defends lightweight title vs. Artiom Damkovsky (20-9) at M-1 Challenge 64 on 2/19.

Artem Damkovsky (20-9) is a tough Belarusian lightweight who will try his chances to take the M-1 Champion's title that he someday posessed. Since his loss to Mairbek Taisumov in 2013, Damkovsky got 4 fight win streak, defeating Heydar Mammedaliev, Zulfikar Usmanov, Viktor Kuku and Said Khalikov under M-1 Challenge banner. Now he gets the long anticipated title shot at reigning Champion Mansour Barnaoui.
 
Mansour Barnaoui (12-3) got an unhappy loss to Ivan Buchinger at his fight for M-1 featherweight title in October. Having a difficult weigh-cut Mansour was defeated after 5 rounds of a brutal action. Still keeping his belt in lightweight division French phenom will be ready to defend if in his natural weight against Belarusian contender.

Kingfedor wrote:
Mansour Barnaoui (12-3) defends lightweight title vs. Artiom Damkovsky (20-9) at M-1 Challenge 64 on 2/19.

Artem Damkovsky (20-9) is a tough Belarusian lightweight who will try his chances to take the M-1 Champion's title that he someday posessed. Since his loss to Mairbek Taisumov in 2013, Damkovsky got 4 fight win streak, defeating Heydar Mammedaliev, Zulfikar Usmanov, Viktor Kuku and Said Khalikov under M-1 Challenge banner. Now he gets the long anticipated title shot at reigning Champion Mansour Barnaoui.
 
Mansour Barnaoui (12-3) got an unhappy loss to Ivan Buchinger at his fight for M-1 featherweight title in October. Having a difficult weigh-cut Mansour was defeated after 5 rounds of a brutal action. Still keeping his belt in lightweight division French phenom will be ready to defend if in his natural weight against Belarusian contender.

Should be a good title fight

To determine the new M-1 Bantamweight (61kg) division champion, they're planning to arrange a 4 fighters tournament. The first semi-final will be held at M-1 Challenge 64 event between Pavel Vitruk (12-2) Alexander Nevsky Fight Club, Russia and Sergei Morozov (4-0) Kazakhstan.

The passed year wasn't too successful for Pavel Vitruk. He suffered 2 consecutive losses - to Max Coga and Lee Morrison - both in featherweight division. After that streak his team had decided to cut down to new bantamweight division, where Pavel has solid chances to become successful.

Sergei Morozov is a fighter of unique talent. He is a surging martial arts star from Kazakhstan. For the 2 previous years he held an impressive win over Rijirigala Amu and Andy Young. Both wins were held via TKO. Win over Vitruk can make Morozov one step closer to become one of the youngest M-1 champions for the history of the promotion.

The 2nd semi-final fight of bantamweight tournament will be announced soon.

This is the fight which MMA fans have been waiting for years. Three times Bellator middleweight Champion Alexander “Storm” Shlemenko (Rusfighters, STORM, Russia), 51-9 is one of the strongest and most popular Russian middleweights. He has an impressive record with 51 wins in 60 bouts. Most of his fights he won by KO/TKO.
 
His opponent Vyacheslav Vasilevsky (FightSpirit, Russia), 27-3, former M-1 Challenge middleweight and light heavyweight Champion is one of Russian MMA fans favorite fighter. Talented striker and five times combat sambo World Champion, now he is ready for maybe the greatest challenge in his professional fighting career.


Two Russian athletes with their incredible striking skills are to headline the first M-1 Challenge event in 2016.

Wow.

That's great news.

Who cares about who the rest of the participants are because this match alone makes the Grand Prix solid

wekka wrote:Who cares about who the rest of the participants are because this match alone makes the Grand Prix solid

I agree. This is a great fight.

Amazing card, M-1 starting out 2016 very strong. Really happy to see Shlemenko back in action but Slava might be too much for Storm after over a year of time off.

AudaxSynth wrote:Amazing card, M-1 starting out 2016 very strong. Really happy to see Shlemenko back in action but Slava might be too much for Storm after over a year of time off.

I agree, great fight. You might be right, Slava may take this one.

It was cool of Bellator to allow Shlemenko to fight for M-1. Bellator had to give him written permission to fight there.

Hopefully m1 gets its head out of its ass and joins the federation they have a ton of skilled guys in every division that would bring some great fights to some of the GPs.

fka wrote:Hopefully m1 gets its head out of its ass and joins the federation they have a ton of skilled guys in every division that would bring some great fights to some of the GPs.

I hope for the same.

Seems like this should be a Bellator/M-1 co-promoted event.
Just add a couple more Bellator guys.  This should be on Spike.

Offense_Wins_Fights wrote:Seems like this should be a Bellator/M-1 co-promoted event.
Just add a couple more Bellator guys.  This should be on Spike.

Agreed

 
The 2nd bantamweight tournament semi-final between Antun Racic and Vitaly Branchuk will be held on February 19

Antun Racic (18-6) from Croatian Gladiator Team, will have his debut fight at M-1 bantamweight division on February 19th. Before M-1 opened 61kg dibision, Antun had to fight with much bigger opponents, where he showed superior MMA skills and tough fighting spirit. As many of our fans know, Racic posesses incredible physical power and amazing grappling skills. He submitted most of his opponents.
 
Vitaly Branchuk (20-5) from Ukrainian team "Patriot" is extremely experienced fighter who knocked out 10 of his opponents. He's leading 7 fights win streak and wants to get M-1 bantamweight Championship badly. Actually he needs only 2 straight wins in upcoming bantamweight tournament to become the first ever M-1 bantamweight champion. But will he make it happen?

Kingfedor wrote: 
The 2nd bantamweight tournament semi-final between Antun Racic and Vitaly Branchuk will be held on February 19

Antun Racic (18-6) from Croatian Gladiator Team, will have his debut fight at M-1 bantamweight division on February 19th. Before M-1 opened 61kg dibision, Antun had to fight with much bigger opponents, where he showed superior MMA skills and tough fighting spirit. As many of our fans know, Racic posesses incredible physical power and amazing grappling skills. He submitted most of his opponents.
 
Vitaly Branchuk (20-5) from Ukrainian team "Patriot" is extremely experienced fighter who knocked out 10 of his opponents. He's leading 7 fights win streak and wants to get M-1 bantamweight Championship badly. Actually he needs only 2 straight wins in upcoming bantamweight tournament to become the first ever M-1 bantamweight champion. But will he make it happen?

Good to see another tournament.  Their MW tournament is top notch with the talent involved.

@MamedKhalidov will be the cornerman of @StormShlemenko: https://m1global.tv/news/21340/  #MMA #Fighting #M1Global #Khalidov
11:01 AM - 4 Feb 2016

https://twitter.com/M1GlobalNews/status/695306240067518464

Holy shit! I've always wanted to see these two fight but now they've teamed up! All MWs on the planet are in grave danger now.

AudaxSynth wrote:

@MamedKhalidov will be the cornerman of @StormShlemenko: https://m1global.tv/news/21340/  #MMA #Fighting #M1Global #Khalidov
11:01 AM - 4 Feb 2016

https://twitter.com/M1GlobalNews/status/695306240067518464

Holy shit! I've always wanted to see these two fight but now they've teamed up! All MWs on the planet are in grave danger now.

Crazy, that Mamed will be in Shlemenko's corner. That'll be pretty cool but I still want to see them fight one day.

Joe Ray (13-4) vs Nodar Kudukhashvili (10-2) fight is set for M-1 Challenge 64 event. Title Fight between Mansour Barnaoui (12-3) vs. (20-9) Artiom Damkovsky is move to M-1 Challenge 65 .

Joe Ray (12-4) is an experienced veteran of American MMA arena, participated in Strikeforce, XFC and Battlegrounds MMA. He knocked out or submitted 11 of his opponents so far. 
 
Nodar Kudukhashvili (10-2) is one of the best MMA fighters out of Georgia. He is a master of submissions and extremely tough fighter. He has completely opposite style in compare to Joe Ray. This will be a classical striker vs wrestler match-up.

Big Fight tomorrow (Shlemenko vs. Slava), plus HW title fight with Volkov M-1 debut.  Hope there is a stream for this.

Fighters are in on weight:

Russia’s leading MMA promotion M-1 Global is officially set for its next event, which takes place Friday night at Olympic Stadium in Moscow. M-1 Challenge 64 boasts an intriguing double feature, with one of the bouts for the organization’s vacant heavyweight title.

Alexander Shlemenko, who is serving a three-year suspension in the U.S., and Vyacheslav Vaselevsky will square off in the marquee’s main event. The bout, which is a semifinal of M-1 Challenge’s Middleweight Grand Prix, will go down as scheduled because both men were on point at Thursday’s weigh-ins. As it turned out, both combatants tipped the scale at 184.5 pounds.

Heavyweights Alexander Volkov and Denis Smoldaraev will duke it out for the vacant crown, but even though neither man had to cut any significant weight, they both looked primed for action. Volkov officially weighed 236.5 pounds while Smoldaraev was much heavier; he came in at 269.5.

M-1 Challenge 64 Weigh-in Results:
Alexander Shlemenko (184.5) vs. Vyacheslav Vaselevsky (184.5)
Alexander Volkov (236.5) vs. Denis Smoldaraev (269.5)
Pavel Vitruk (135) vs. Sergey Morozov (134)
Antun Racic (134) vs. Vitaly Branchuk (134)
Ray Joe (184) vs. Vladimir Katyhin (183.5)
Kurban Ibragimov (230) vs. Dmitriy Mikutsa (239.5)
Magomed Mutaev (185) vs. Vadim Orischak (184)
Valery Myasnikov (185) vs. Vyacheslav Bogomol (183)
Stefan Larisch (168.5) vs. Maksin Grabovich (168)
Andrey Lezhnev (145) vs. Timur Nagibin (145)

http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/M1-Challenge-64-Weighin-Results-USSuspended-Shlemenko-Vaselevsky-Cleared-100425