So why was Cody McKenzie, of all people, booked for a fight in Russia in the first place? Who knows. If we had to guess, we’d say that his salmon-fishing bout took a wrong turn at the Bering Strait. Cody now returns to the U.S., where he’ll prepare to be the star witness in the class-action lawsuit against the UFC.
(Do witnesses even give testimony in class-action lawsuits? I have no idea how this works. But it is, indeed, a funny image.)
So why was Cody McKenzie, of all people, booked for a fight in Russia in the first place? Who knows. If we had to guess, we’d say that his salmon-fishing bout took a wrong turn at the Bering Strait. Cody now returns to the U.S., where he’ll prepare to be the star witness in the class-action lawsuit against the UFC.
(Do witnesses even give testimony in class-action lawsuits? I have no idea how this works. But it is, indeed, a funny image.)
On August 16, 2009, Khabilov faced Akin Duran at an M-1 Challenge event in the Netherlands. The fight lasted all of 28 seconds. Watch as Khabilov takes the center of the ring, corrals Duran into a corner, clinches, then drops Duran directly onto his head with a belly-to-belly suplex, knocking him out immediately. Duran never fought again.
On August 16, 2009, Khabilov faced Akin Duran at an M-1 Challenge event in the Netherlands. The fight lasted all of 28 seconds. Watch as Khabilov takes the center of the ring, corrals Duran into a corner, clinches, then drops Duran directly onto his head with a belly-to-belly suplex, knocking him out immediately. Duran never fought again.
When we last checked in on M-1 Global, Jeff Monson was busy being the anti-Bones before his loss to Fedor, Aleksander Emelianenko got flattened by Magomed Malikov and Maxim Grishin was caught rubbing his legs down with Bengay before a losing effort in his interim heavyweight championship bout with Kenny Garner. So basically, M-1 Global has been delivering plenty of insanity is what we’re getting at. Those of you who watched last night’s M-1 Challenge 30 in Costa Mesa, California expecting a freak show were likely disappointed, but those of you who expected a night of good fights got exactly that.
The evening’s main event saw welterweight champion Shamil Zavurov, who was forced out of a title defense against Rashid Magomedov at M-1 Challenge 28 by a last minute injury, defend his title against Swiss prospect Yasubey Enomoto. Earlier this year, Zavurov took home a unanimous decision over Enomoto after Yasubey Enomoto took the fight on eight days notice. This time around, Shamil Zavurov would not be so lucky.
When we last checked in on M-1 Global, Jeff Monson was busy being the anti-Bones before his loss to Fedor, Aleksander Emelianenko got flattened by Magomed Malikov and Maxim Grishin was caught rubbing his legs down with Bengay before a losing effort in his interim heavyweight championship bout with Kenny Garner. So basically, M-1 Global has been delivering plenty of insanity is what we’re getting at. Those of you who watched last night’s M-1 Challenge 30 in Costa Mesa, California expecting a freak show were likely disappointed, but those of you who expected a night of good fights got exactly that.
The evening’s main event saw welterweight champion Shamil Zavurov, who was forced out of a title defense against Rashid Magomedov at M-1 Challenge 28 by a last minute injury, defend his title against Swiss prospect Yasubey Enomoto. Earlier this year, Zavurov took home a unanimous decision over Enomoto after Yasubey Enomoto took the fight on eight days notice. This time around, Shamil Zavurov would not be so lucky.
Shamil faded in the championship rounds, causing his takedown attempts to become more and more transparent. With one minute left in the final round, Zavurov shot for a takedown against Enomoto, and Enomoto countered the attempt with a fight-ending guillotine. Yasubey Enomoto improves to 9-3 with the victory, while the loss snaps a thirteen fight win streak for Shamil Zavurov.
Zavurov vs Enomoto, part two.
Also of note, Artiom Damkovsky redeemed himself after a second round TKO in March against Jose Figueroa with a first round knockout over Figueroa. Figueroa came out attempting a quick, sloppy takedown from across the ring. That kind of thing may work in the amateur circuit, but against Damkovsky? Not so much. Figueroa was unable to get Damkovsky to the ground before the knockout, and now falls to 10-6 in his career. Coincidentally, Artiom Damkovsky improves to 10-6 with the victory.
Tomasz Narkun and Saparbek Safarov getting into it at the weigh-ins. GIFS from Emelianenko vs. Malikov after the jump. Props: IronForgesIron.com
As we anxiously await the UFC’s debut on Fox, let’s take the time to celebrate an event that did not go nearly as smoothly as we hope UFC on Fox 1 goes: M-1 Challenge 28. The event was initially set to be headlined by a welterweight championship bout between Shamil Zavurov and Rashid Magomedov, but Shamil was forced off of the card with a last minute injury. In place of the championship bout, M-1 quickly booked Aleksander Emelianenko to fight 3-1 prospect Magomed Malikov. Okay, lackluster main event with a guy we at least know of. It could get worse, right? Don’t worry, it did.
Add on the above tussle from the event’s weigh-ins, and things were spiraling out of control pretty quickly. At least we can still count on Aleksander Emelianenko to crush a hapless can, right? Right?
Tomasz Narkun and Saparbek Safarov getting into it at the weigh-ins. GIFS from Emelianenko vs. Malikov after the jump. Props: IronForgesIron.com
As we anxiously await the UFC’s debut on Fox, let’s take the time to celebrate an event that did not go nearly as smoothly as we hope UFC on Fox 1 goes: M-1 Challenge 28. The event was initially set to be headlined by a welterweight championship bout between Shamil Zavurov and Rashid Magomedov, but Shamil was forced off of the card with a last minute injury. In place of the championship bout, M-1 quickly booked Aleksander Emelianenko to fight 3-1 prospect Magomed Malikov. Okay, lackluster main event with a guy we at least know of. It could get worse, right? Don’t worry, it did.
Add on the above tussle from the event’s weigh-ins, and things were spiraling out of control pretty quickly. At least we can still count on Aleksander Emelianenko to crush a hapless can, right? Right?
There may be nothing worse for an MMA promotion than a lackluster title fight. If you’re promoting two fighters as the best fighters your promotion has to offer at their respective weight class and they fail to deliver an entertaining fight, everyone looks bad. The promotion looks foolish for claiming that a sub-par fighter is the best it has to offer, all of the other fighters in that weight class look laughably incompetent by default (after all, they weren’t skilled enough to challenge for the title), and fans in attendance feel cheated. Just in case you can’t figure out where this is going: Kenny Garner vs. Maxim Grishin as an interim heavyweight championship fight all but canceled out the rest M-1 Challenge 27.
This isn’t to say that last night’s M-1 event didn’t deliver the exciting finishes we’ve come to expect from them. In fact, none of the fights from the main card went the distance. The night started off with three first round submissions from Daniel Madrid, Yasubey Enomoto and Arthur Guseinov, respectively. The combined amount of time it took these three to submit their opponents? Two minutes and forty five seconds. Very nice, gentlemen.
There may be nothing worse for an MMA promotion than a lackluster title fight. If you’re promoting two fighters as the best fighters your promotion has to offer at their respective weight class and they fail to deliver an entertaining fight, everyone looks bad. The promotion looks foolish for claiming that a sub-par fighter is the best it has to offer, all of the other fighters in that weight class look laughably incompetent by default (after all, they weren’t skilled enough to challenge for the title), and fans in attendance feel cheated. Just in case you can’t figure out where this is going: Kenny Garner vs. Maxim Grishin as an interim heavyweight championship fight all but canceled out the rest M-1 Challenge 27.
This isn’t to say that last night’s M-1 event didn’t deliver the exciting finishes we’ve come to expect from them. In fact, none of the fights from the main card went the distance. The night started off with three first round submissions from Daniel Madrid, Yasubey Enomoto and Arthur Guseinov, respectively. The combined amount of time it took these three to submit their opponents? Two minutes and forty five seconds. Very nice, gentlemen.
But then it was time for Garner vs. Grishin. In a fight between two heavyweights who have never heard of a treadmill, Garner’s game plan involved some occasional strikes in order set up the clinch against the ropes with Grishin. Despite a lack of action, both men were exhausted by the end of the first round, leading to even more stalling and even slower punches as the fight continued. Because this was a title fight, fans were punished for whatever sins they have committed with two additional rounds. Despite almost finishing Garner with an armbar and a triangle choke in the championship rounds, Grishin tapped out from strikes during the fifth round. Kenny Garner is now the M-1 Global Interim Heavyweight champion, and coincidentally, I no longer consider interim championships significant. If you thought that fight was boring to read about, just imagine actually watching it.
In the main event, Light Heavyweight Champion Vinny Magalhaes took a break from training with Fedor for his upcoming clash with Jeff Monson in order to defend the title against Mikhail Zayats. Throughout the fight, Zayats was actually getting the better of Magalhaes. Zayats outstruck Magalhaes, and managed to stuff the ADCC gold medalist’s takedown attempts. But Mikhail Zayats picked the wrong time to drop his hands, and was dropped by the champion with a right head kick. Vinny Magalhaes now improves to 9-5-1 with the victory.
In ‘where are they now’ news, former season eight, “Ultimate Fighter” competitor Vinny Magalhaes won M-1’s light-heavyweight championship today in St. Petersburg, Russia. If you didn’t watch TUF 8, or aren’t on a MMA diet that includes anything non Octagon related, Magalhaes is a jiu-jitsu demi-god who has been on a bit of a tear […]
In ‘where are they now’ news, former season eight, “Ultimate Fighter” competitor Vinny Magalhaes won M-1’s light-heavyweight championship today in St. Petersburg, Russia. If you didn’t watch TUF 8, or aren’t on a MMA diet that includes anything non Octagon related, Magalhaes is a jiu-jitsu demi-god who has been on a bit of a tear since exiting from the UFC in 2009.
Today, Magalhaes took on Viktor Nemkov, who despite pushing the Vegas fighter to his limit for a couple of rounds, eventually got caught with a ‘holy eff’ gogoplata, neck crank from the mount. Magalhaes has now won four straight. Look for Magalhaes to appear on another Showtime card real soon…
