Bellator signs M-1 vet Shahbulat Shamhalaev

Once-beaten prospect Shahbulat Shamhalaev (9-1 MMA, 0-0 BFC) is Bellator Fighting Championships' latest addition.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) today learned of the new deal from sources close to the fighter. Shamhalaev will compete as a featherweight for Bellator.

It's currently unknown when Shamhalaev will make his Bellator debut, but he could potentially fight as soon as the promotion's upcoming "Summer Series" of monthly events.

Shamhalaev fought twice under the M-1 Global banner early in his career, and he earned a TKO win over Radzha Hizriev in September 2009 before falling pray to a Khabib Nurmagomedov kimura two months later. The loss remains Shamhalaev's only defeat to date, and Nurmagedov recently signed with the UFC.

Since the loss, Shamhalaev has racked up seven straight victories, including a single-night eight-man tournament win in November 2009 for Russia's Mix Fight Tournament promotion, as well as a pair of wins on back-to-back days under Ukraine's World Martial Arts Championship banners.

Shamhalaev also is an accomplished Muay Thai stylist who has competed internationally as a professional.

http://mmajunkie.com/news/28513/bellator-signs-m-1-vet-shahbulat-shamhalaev.mma

All these Russian fighters are slowly going to make a huge impact in the sports, the same way that Brazilians have dominated the sport.

This is a great thing.

monaroCountry wrote:All these Russian fighters are slowly going to make a huge impact in the sports, the same way that Brazilians have dominated the sport.

This is a great thing.

Yup, a lot of solid Russian fighters signing with Bellator. Plus, M-1 is loaded with them. Great to see.

CDF47 wrote:

monaroCountry wrote:All these Russian fighters are slowly going to make a huge impact in the sports, the same way that Brazilians have dominated the sport.

This is a great thing.

Yup, a lot of solid Russian fighters signing with Bellator. Plus, M-1 is loaded with them. Great to see.

Bellator = soon to be M-1 lite

monaroCountry wrote:All these Russian fighters are slowly going to make a huge impact in the sports, the same way that Brazilians have dominated the sport.

This is a great thing.

Also kind of like the Russian/Eastern European invasion of boxing.

I think it is great personally, but a lot of Americans seem to still have an inferiority complex toward Russians. That's one relatively minor factor (American centrism is much more of a major factor for example), but it is visible.

For example, the open campaign to find an American heavyweight champion (which was even in the mainstream boxing news for a while--people seem to have just given up rather than discover a sense of decency). It was on full display in fact for the Oleg Maskaev-Hassim Rahman fight, with the commentators even in on the act. It was kind of funny (but also kind of shameful) in the post-fight interview following Oleg's 12th round KO victory, when Oleg stated that he is an American citizen and didn't really understand what all of this was about (the pre-fight hype, etc.).

This led to some trying to say that Oleg was in fact an American champ, but most were still not buying (but I guess he was a Slav with a Russian accent, you know, and a former Soviet team member even. etc. More presciently though for the point at hand, he was indeed originally a Russian trained fighter and a Russian gold medalist).

Nevermind, Oleg was never an Olympian, according to his encyclopedia entry on boxrec and wikipedia.

I thought he was in the 1992 Olympics, won a gold medal, and then went to the US.

I must have been thinking about someone else. Or, these two websites are grossly under informative.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing_at_the_1992_Summer_Olympics

Where the hell did I ever get that idea. It could have been some mis-information I read somewhere one time. I don't think I made it up, but I guess it's possible. I really think I ready it somewhere once though. Could have been an idiot on a forum one time (sort of like how I would be the idiot now if I didn't correct myself).

nodogoshi wrote:
I think it is great personally, but a lot of Americans seem to still have an inferiority complex toward Russians. That's one relatively minor factor (American centrism is much more of a major factor for example), but it is visible.

Sometimes it seems like the cold war is still on. American fans seem to have a big problem with russians or maybe that´s just because of Dana.

Johan Lofgren wrote:

nodogoshi wrote:
I think it is great personally, but a lot of Americans seem to still have an inferiority complex toward Russians. That's one relatively minor factor (American centrism is much more of a major factor for example), but it is visible.

Sometimes it seems like the cold war is still on. American fans seem to have a big problem with russians or maybe that´s just because of Dana.

Nope not just Dana.

I dont think Americans realize how far Russian has progressed, most Americans are still stuck with their cold war stereotypes.

Johan Lofgren wrote:

nodogoshi wrote:
I think it is great personally, but a lot of Americans seem to still have an inferiority complex toward Russians. That's one relatively minor factor (American centrism is much more of a major factor for example), but it is visible.

Sometimes it seems like the cold war is still on. American fans seem to have a big problem with russians or maybe that´s just because of Dana.

To many Americans, it is still on.

^^

Not that many people really think about it, and most people probably don't care about it. But I guess minds don't change so quickly.

Why haven't we seen a Russian fighter in the UFC?

Okay, we did have the Janitor. I loved the Janitor, but he wasn't a young and strong fighter, he was a guy on the tail end of his career.

I'd like to see some young strong Russians come in. They would take over much of American MMA. Russians have heart, but more importantly they have skill (Russian fighters).

nodogoshi wrote:Why haven't we seen a Russian fighter in the UFC?

Okay, we did have the Janitor. I loved the Janitor, but he wasn't a young and strong fighter, he was a guy on the tail end of his career.

I'd like to see some young strong Russians come in. They would take over much of American MMA. Russians have heart, but more importantly they have skill (Russian fighters).

Russian and eastern euro fighters are dangerous for the UFC brand. They have incredible skills and could clean out the top guys but at the same time they won´t draw a big american audience. I think Zuffa think twice before signing russian fighters.

Johan Lofgren wrote:

nodogoshi wrote:Why haven't we seen a Russian fighter in the UFC?

Okay, we did have the Janitor. I loved the Janitor, but he wasn't a young and strong fighter, he was a guy on the tail end of his career.

I'd like to see some young strong Russians come in. They would take over much of American MMA. Russians have heart, but more importantly they have skill (Russian fighters).

Russian and eastern euro fighters are dangerous for the UFC brand. They have incredible skills and could clean out the top guys but at the same time they won´t draw a big american audience. I think Zuffa think twice before signing russian fighters.

This is exactly it.

That doesn't mean that Russian, or Eastern Europeans would clean out the divisions, but they'd be very competitive.

However, MMA is not a sport.

monaroCountry wrote:

CDF47 wrote:

monaroCountry wrote:All these Russian fighters are slowly going to make a huge impact in the sports, the same way that Brazilians have dominated the sport.

This is a great thing.

Yup, a lot of solid Russian fighters signing with Bellator. Plus, M-1 is loaded with them. Great to see.

Bellator = soon to be M-1 lite

Yeah, they are stocking up on some solid Russian fighters.

CDF47 wrote:

monaroCountry wrote:

CDF47 wrote:

monaroCountry wrote:All these Russian fighters are slowly going to make a huge impact in the sports, the same way that Brazilians have dominated the sport.

This is a great thing.

Yup, a lot of solid Russian fighters signing with Bellator. Plus, M-1 is loaded with them. Great to see.

Bellator = soon to be M-1 lite

Yeah, they are stocking up on some solid Russian fighters.

This is a very good thing. Russians have some badass martial artists, and in the past years, since the fall of Pride we have almost no new guys from there. Maybe now it will slowly go back to when, americans, russians, brazilians and japanese were together beating the crap out of each other. Along with other nationalities too of course, that are entering the sport all the time.

Wolfman wrote:

CDF47 wrote:

monaroCountry wrote:

CDF47 wrote:

monaroCountry wrote:All these Russian fighters are slowly going to make a huge impact in the sports, the same way that Brazilians have dominated the sport.

This is a great thing.

Yup, a lot of solid Russian fighters signing with Bellator. Plus, M-1 is loaded with them. Great to see.

Bellator = soon to be M-1 lite

Yeah, they are stocking up on some solid Russian fighters.

This is a very good thing. Russians have some badass martial artists, and in the past years, since the fall of Pride we have almost no new guys from there. Maybe now it will slowly go back to when, americans, russians, brazilians and japanese were together beating the crap out of each other. Along with other nationalities too of course, that are entering the sport all the time.

Yeah, that is what I am hoping for. The international flavor of this sport is one thing that makes it great.

Johan Lofgren wrote:

nodogoshi wrote:Why haven't we seen a Russian fighter in the UFC?

Okay, we did have the Janitor. I loved the Janitor, but he wasn't a young and strong fighter, he was a guy on the tail end of his career.

I'd like to see some young strong Russians come in. They would take over much of American MMA. Russians have heart, but more importantly they have skill (Russian fighters).

Russian and eastern euro fighters are dangerous for the UFC brand. They have incredible skills and could clean out the top guys but at the same time they won´t draw a big american audience. I think Zuffa think twice before signing russian fighters.

Id have to agree with you.

Those Russians have always been very good at combat sports i.e. Fedor and Igor especially.

Its just that Zuffa hasnt really acquired them because they do not have the support of American and South Americans fans in NA.

nodogoshi wrote:Nevermind, Oleg was never an Olympian, according to his encyclopedia entry on boxrec and wikipedia.

I thought he was in the 1992 Olympics, won a gold medal, and then went to the US.

I must have been thinking about someone else. Or, these two websites are grossly under informative.

He wasn't an Olympian afaik.

The 1992 Olympic gold winner in HW category was the Cuban legend Felix Savon (who would also go on to win gold in 1996 and 2000). Wlad won the gold in the SHW class in 96.

His am success was in the Soviet military.

He claims that he beat Vitali in the ammy's:

FH: Didn't you fight one of the Klitschkos as an amateur?

Maskaev: Yeah, Vitali. I fought Vitali in the amateurs and I stopped him in the first round, and he doesn't want to admit that. He'll say, 'Oh, hey, I hurt my hand, and I couldn't continue.'

But I remember that I hurt him three times, and when his trainer saw that Vitali couldn't handle it, and didn't have a chance to beat me, he stopped the fight.

http://www.aolnews.com/2009/11/22/qanda-with-former-heavy-champ-oleg-maskaev/

They are still trying to find that elusive American HW champ & this guy thinks he wll get one out of washed up NFL guys lol:

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/boxing--tv-exec-calls-plan-to-revive-heavyweight-division-better-investment-than-buying-dodgers.html;_ylt=AlWlDTNfiDgUargdx18g4EyUxLYF

I used to be surprised at the lack of Russian guys in the UFC but not anymore, especially after Dana's ignorant outbursts about Russians.

From what I understand fighters were prevented from turning pro until the collapse of the USSR, same as in Cuba. So talents went into ammy's until recently.

But with the collapse of the Soviet Union, we are seeing that talent turn pro nowadays.

I just with Cuba would follow suit.

Fisticuffa wrote:

From what I understand fighters were prevented from turning pro until the collapse of the USSR, same as in Cuba. So talents went into ammy's until recently.

But with the collapse of the Soviet Union, we are seeing that talent turn pro nowadays.

I just with Cuba would follow suit.

Yes, this has been true for all communist countries, not just the USSR (you mentioned Cuba, but it also included countries like Hungry, Bulgaria, etc. And it still includes Cuba.)

Not only that, it takes time for professional sports to develop in say Russia, and it is still very much in development stages. But there are so many great fighters from Russia, on a level playing field the Russians should dominate the sport really.

nodogoshi wrote:Why haven't we seen a Russian fighter in the UFC?

Okay, we did have the Janitor. I loved the Janitor, but he wasn't a young and strong fighter, he was a guy on the tail end of his career.

I'd like to see some young strong Russians come in. They would take over much of American MMA. Russians have heart, but more importantly they have skill (Russian fighters).

They have Khabib Nurmagomedov currently and he has potential to make some noise at 155 if brought up slowly. Sarnavskiy might end up there but id rather him be in Bellator where he'll get better warm up fights instead of thrown straight to the wolves like he would in the UFC.

Of course there was also Oleg Taktarov, who was fairly successful and Igor Zinoviev, while only having a career ending fight with Frank Shamrock in his sole UFC appearance, was a very good fighter in Extreme Fighting.

^ I would also give the nod to Adrei Arlovski he was born in former USSR and Belarussian ain't that far from Russian. They were one of the founding republics of the Soviet Union.

A heck of a lot of people who were born under Soviet rule from it's central power base of Moscow consider(ed) themselves to be part of the Russian state nationalistically. This was the same way the western world saw it. In fact, many people that live in the now independent nations wish things would go back to the way things were.