M-1 Challenge Returns with 3 Title Bouts

A trio of championship bouts will anchor M-1 Global’s next season of “M-1 Global Challenge,” which debuts on Oct. 28 at the Ice Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia, the promotion announced this week.

The three title bouts will pair M-1 Global’s 2010 “Selection” regional champions, who topped a worldwide tournament that began in January.

In a lightweight title bout, Artiom Damkovsky will face 22-year-old Chechnyan Mairbek Taisumov. Damkosky cinched the Eastern Europe championship for M-1 Selection’s regional tournament. Taisumov, the M-1 Selection Western Europe 2010 champion, has finished five of his last seven victories within the first round.

Eastern Europe winner Magomed Sultanakhmedov meets his Western Europe counterpart RafaÅ‚ Moks in the promotion’s middleweight championship bout.

The 26-year-old Sultanakhmedov, who dropped a first-round loss to Zelg Galesic in the middleweight grand prix’s opening round at Dream 2, has strung together a seven-fight win streak since July 2009. Polish fighter Moks has earned three of his five career wins by submission.

Finally, in the heavyweight championship bout, Eastern Europe champion Maxim Grishin will take on undefeated Guram Gugenishvili, who was crowned the 2010 Western Europe champion.

Additional bouts will be announced in the coming weeks.