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M1 Challenge: Red Devils vs USA Review
27 Sep 2008
M1 Challenge: Red Devils vs USA
The infamous M1 Challenge, that has seen their team based fights take place all over the world, finally makes it’s UK debut in their 7th installment, pitting Team USA vs. Red Devil’s from Russia. Going into tonight, USA were second in Pool A with 25 points from 3 events and Red Devils were second from bottom with 19 points from 2 events.
One of the main reasons tonights event is being co-promoted by Warrior Promotions, creators of one of the UK’s top MMA organisations Cage Warriors, is because in 2009, they will be creating a GB team to join the M1 Challenge.
Headlined by a grudge re-match from Cage Warriors Enter The Rough House 7 between local favourite Wayne Buck and Italian independent fighter Matteo ‘The Brutal’ Minonzio which ended in controversy, tonight would settle the score once and for all. The fight started with an initial feeling out process that saw Minonzio taunting Buck, until he decided to take the bull by the horns and went for a thai clinch where he threw some knees to Buck‘s midsection. With the whole venue behind him, Buck broke away and landed some good strikes, but was again caught in the clinch where the Italian, true to his nickname, proceeded to land some brutal knees. It seemed that Buck had taken too much as he fell into the ropes and tapped out, forcing the referee to step in and call it. Upon getting back to his feet, the Tap or Snap trained fighter was disputing the decision to stop the fight, claiming that he had not tapped. Seasoned referee and pro fighter Marc Goddard tried explaining to Buck that he had seen him tap, and even confirmed this with several sources sitting ringside, but Buck and his corner were having none of it. The packed crowd were clearly behind Buck, and made their dissatisfaction of the decision known with a chorus of boo’s. Eventually, the decision was made final when announcer Ian ‘The Machine’ Freeman confirmed Minonzio had won due to tapout from strikes at 2:51 of the very first round.
The other super fight of the night saw Leicestershire’s Team Rough House trained legend ‘Judo’ Jimmy Wallhead take out highly regarded Brazilian Igor Araujo in under 2 minutes in another moment of controversy. The Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt immediately looked to take the fight to the ground, but Wallhead was wise to this and sprawled well, clinching against the ropes. Araujo pulled guard and would no doubt start looking for submissions. Unfortunately for him, Wallhead had other ideas, and launched a barrage of punches, one of which knocked Araujo out and lead the ref to step in and stop the punishment. The crowd errupted and ‘Judo’ Jim was over the moon with the quick finish. The same could not be said for Araujo himself or his corner, who jumped into the ring and were shouting at the referee, saying it was an early stoppage and that their guy was fine to carry on. Disgusted with the stoppage, Igor actually tried to leave the ring before the official announcement. Ringside medic’s confirmed that Araujo was out as the ref stepped in.
In tournament action, USA Lightweight fighter Beau King made his intentions clear early, showing a spinning back fist and spinning high kick to his Russian foe Mikhail Malyutin. Wanting no part of such activities, Malyutin clinched and King pulled guard. The American used an omoplata to gain top position himself, moving into side control after deflecting submission attempts. Malyutin was able to get back to his feet, but King again tried to take the fight to the mat. This time, Malyutin expected it and managed to secure his back. King showed great resilience and submission defence, using wrist control to stop the Russian from sinking in the choke and prevented himself from taking too many shots. Malyutin was unrelenting and eventually slid his arm under King’s neck and squeezed, forcing the American to tap as the bell rang to end the round. The fight was called at 5 minutes exactly. King showed real heart and some good standup, coupled with great submission defence and is unlucky to now have a 2-4 MMA record.
Hoping to get some revenge for his team mate, USA Welterweight Brandon Magana was able to rock Red Devil’s Erik Ogonov early, but could not capitalise. In the second round, Ogonov spent the majority of the 5 minutes in Magana’s guard being tied up. In the exchanges that occurred on the feet, neither man had a clear advantage, and the majority decision went the way of the Red Devil’s to take an early 2-0 lead
In Middleweight action, Dimitriy Samylov continued the Red Devil’s winning streak when he eeked out a majority decision against USA’s Bryan Harper. Both came out striking until the Russian landed a perfect judo throw, which he was unable to capitalise on. They traded some more on the feet but the punches didn’t have much behind them. The second round was pretty similar to the first, with most of the fight taking place on the feet. The judges must have been swayed by Samylov’s lovely judo throw in the first and the mouse under Harper’s eye when giving the decision to the Russian.
An unfortunate end to the Light Heavyweight bout, with USA’s John Cornett being forced to verbally submit after injuring his right hand. Cornett was throwing big haymakers from the off that Mikhail Zavats clearly wanted none of as he took the fight to the floor. He immediately unleashes a furious ground and pound attach that opens a cut over the American’s left eye. After being cleared by the doctor, Zavats kept up the pressure by landing a good leg kick right straight combo and then rocking Cornett with a big right hand that looked to have turned the lights out in Cornett’s head, only for the canvas to turn them back on. As he landed under the ropes half outside the ring, the ref stopped and let him up as the round came to a close.
The one minute rest period could not have come sooner for the American, but as soon as round 2 started Zavats continued where he left off in round 1. Cornett tried a feeble takedown attempt to escape the punishment, but Zavats replied with a furious takedown of his own, that ended with him slamming Cornett through the ropes and half outside the ring. Cornett was slow to get up and clearly looked in trouble, as his corner called it off.
Fedor Emelianenko’s ‘understudy’ Kirill Sidelnikov lived up to the hype, by following in his trainer’s footsteps with a ground and pound victory to make it 5-0 for the Red Devil’s against USA’s Heavyweight competitor James Jack. Wearing wrestling boots, and with a huge 14kg weight advantage, Jack’s intentions were obvious from the off, and he would have landed his takedown cleanly had Sidelnikov not grabbed the ropes. Eventually taking him down in the corner, the Russian was able to climb back to his feet and land a punch that sent Jack wobbling and instinctively grabbing an ankle as he stumbled forward. Sidelnikov just stayed where he was and started his assault that saw the ref step in at 1:27 to confirm the hype.
In a Team GB eliminator match, Christian Smith’s huge following had plenty to shout about as he knocked out Total Dojo trained Cliff Hall with ground and pound at 33 seconds of the second round. Hall was the initiator of attack in the first, pushing forward until Smith took the fight to the floor into side control, and eventually moving into full mount. Hall was able to escape and end up on top himself, but made a rookie mistake when he stood up and tried to pass guard, only to allow Smith to grab a leg and reverse his fortunes. Smith was able to land some heavy blows from guard and stayed this way until the end of the round.
Coming out in the second, Smith caught a leg kick and slammed Hall onto the unforgiving mat and starting a vicious ground and pound attack that stopped when Marc Goddard saw Hall was out. The doctors were called in to attend to Hall, who was able to get up and walk out of the ring on his own. Very impressive victory for Christian Smith.
The night began with the Russian Legion, 3rd in Pool B with 19 points from 2 events, taking on the bottom placed Europe/World team with 12 points from 2 events.
The Lightweights kicked off proceedings, with Belgium’s Wim Deputter taking on Musa Khamanaev of the Russian Legion. Khamanaev started strong, faking a punch and shooting for a takedown which he finished, winding up in Deputter’s guard. Deputter started with the submission attempts, but Khamanaev was too strong and escaped them all, improving to side mount. Deputter finished the round attempting a kneebar. The second round was much of the same and saw Khamanaev getting the first win of the night.
In Welterweight action, France’s Jason Ponet out pointed Russian Legion’s Sergey Verdesh for the Europe/World teams only victory. Rejecting a tough of gloves as the fight started, Verdesh ran straight for Ponet and clinched. There was a lot of close quarters striking taking place in the clinch until Verdesh attempted a high crotch takedown, which was scuppered when Ponet used the ropes to keep himself upright. Verdesh attempted a rolling kneebar, but Ponet escaped and found himself in side control. He landed some good elbows to the body to impress the judges. The second round saw Ponet land some kicks until he bum rushed Verdesh and again ended up in top position. He was content to stay in Verdesh’s guard and land strikes from there to get the victory.
The Russian Legion’s Middleweight prospect Sergey Komav scored the nights first stoppage, ground and pounding his opponent Rosen Dimitrov into a referee’s stoppage at 2:59 of the second round. After spending most of the first round on his back and the victim of a couple of neck crank attempts, Komac picked up the pace in the second by scoring a takedown and ending up in mount position. Dimitrov had no defence for the Russian’s attack and ended up turning his back, hoping for the onslaught to end. After several blows landed, the referee stepped in to end Dimitrov’s misery.
Rather ironically, the Russian Legion’s Light Heavyweight fighter, Gadzhimund Omarov entered the ring to the Casino Royale theme tune, as he took on Holland’s Nils van Noord in a back and forth battle that required a third round to decide a victor.
The first round was clearly Omarov’s, as he defended an initial takedown attempt by van Noord to secure a takedown of his own and keep him there until the end of the round, landing some good shots whilst locking up van Noord’s right arm. The second round saw the same thing happen, but this time van Noord got the takedown he was clearly looking for. Barring a stoppage to allow the doctor to check out a cut opened up on van Noord, he improved his position into half guard then side control, and ended the round by landing some powerful knees to the Russian’s body. The third round was a repeat of the first round, with van Noord getting a good view of the arena’s ceiling for the majority of the overtime period, save for him escaping only to be taken down almost immediately. Unanimous decision for the controlling Omarov.
The Heavyweights came out and put on a bruising encounter, as Russian Legion’s Akhmed Sultanov preyed on Polish fighter Sylvester Olesky’s obvious weak point, being that he was wearing a knee brace on his left knee. Olesky made no attempt to check any of the repeated kicks that brutalised his thigh and clearly wore him out. Sultanov landed a couple of good throws but most of the fight took place on the feet, with Sultanov looking to be the better striker as he kept up his barrage of punishment on Olesky’s left leg. The pace took it out of them as they visibly gassed in a second round with not much action. Sultanov’s aggressive attack in the first, coupled with the damage he did to the Pole’s leg was enough to secure him the victory and a 4-1 score for the Russian Legion.
A good first night of M1 Challenge action in the UK was topped off with some great super fights to keep the local fans happy. Thanks to Warrior Promotions for putting on the event and sorting out everything I could possibly need to do my job.
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