M-1 Challenge concept
The Challenge introduced by Vadim Finkelstein presents an
international team competition among young prospective fighters who
aspire to gain more experience and prove themselves at the
international level.
The most talented ones will earn an opportunity to be chosen to partake in major M-1 events. The teams consist of 5 athletes (in every weight class), one trainer and one coach. Every participating country brings two complete teams which then compete against each other. Every team members fights at least 4 times totally. As of yet, 2008 Challenge has been started and the Grand Finale is scheduled for the end of the year. The teams are split into the two groups:
Group A: 1.Russia (Red Devil), 2.France, 3.Korea, 4.Finland, 5.USA.
Group B: 1.the Netherlands, 2.Spain, 3.Russia (Legion), 4.Japan, 5.World Star Team.
Eventually, each group will have its winning team so that two finalists will collide during the Grand Finale. As an extra incentive M-1 gives $50.000 USD extra bonus to the winner of M-1 Challenge 2008.
The Dutch and Russian parties are responsible for the overall organization. Participating are also the teams from France, Finland, Japan, Korea, USA, Spain.
Representing the Netherlands among other athletes are Gegard Mousasi (Pictures), Jessie Gibbs and Jason Jones. Mousasi is probably the most well-known of the three, anyway Gibbs and Jones are considered quite talented prospects.
As for the Dutch fighters like Ricardo Wondel (+93), Jason Jones (-83) and Romano de los Reyes (-73), this is an opportunity of a lifetime when you get one unique chance to acquire experience of international level.
The French team is not shy of the talent, too. Heavyweight Komodo, Pride veteran David Baron (Pictures) and a huge talent in Carl Amoussou.
Then comes the Red Devil team under the guidance of none other than Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures). Erik Oganov (Pictures) and Kirill Sidelnikov have already gained popularity in their home country and will undoubtedly provide extra adrenaline in your veins.
The main person responsible for arranging M-1 Challenge events overall is Vadim Finkel-stein. Bertrand Amoussou will put on the show in France while Apy Echteld will be responsi-ble for Dutch M-1 Challenge events and Shinoda Sotaro will arrange the shows on the Japa-nese soil.
12 tournaments are scheduled to take place in 2008. The teams competing in M-1 Challenge are comprised of young aspiring and promising fighters from different countries: Japan, Ko-rea, Russia, USA, Brazil, Finland, Holland and France.
The rules for M-1 Challenge:
A bout consists of 2 rounds 5 minutes each and 90 seconds rest between the rounds. Knees are allowed stand-up. In parter only knees to the body are allowed. It's forbidden to strike a downed opponent while standing. Elbow strikes are only allowed to the body and legs. During the bout a fighter can get 3 warnings whereafter he'll be disqualified.
The review of Russia vs. France bouts + photos
On March, 2 Dutch Topsportcentrum in Almere experienced the first ever M-1 Challenge show when Russia (represented by Red Devil) took on France.
Surprisingly enough but completely deserved: in group A France was victorious against re-nowned Russian Red Devil team scoring 3-2 in its favor during the inaugural M-1 Challenge event. Being the better fighters that night were Russians Mikhail Zayats and Kirill Sidelnikov and, of course, French Karl Amoussou (Pictures).
The same night Dutch team (Bogdan Cristea, Romano de los Reyes, Jason Jones, Gegard Mousasi (Pictures) and Jessy Gibbs) took on the German neighbours in group B. In what seemed to be a walkover the event hosting country couldnt be more impressive with 5:0 score. Due to the elimination of Germany a new team was born. World Star Team will be comprised of the following athletes: Samuel Judes, Norman Paraisy (Pictures), Daniel Weichel, Bruno Carvalho and Michal Kita.
Mikhail Malyutin vs Bendy Casimir (Pictures)
First round was all parter and wrestling. Frenchman caught Mikhail in a hold and tried to ap-ply guillotine. Russian could avoid the critical situation and end up dominating Bendy. The rest of the round saw the volatile domination from both figters. In the round 2 the hard strug-gle resumed. Bendy switched from one submission attempt to another still with no success. Mikhail skillfully escaped all of them and answered with blows in parter. The fight finished and the judges gave the split decision to Bendy.
Erik Oganov (Pictures) vs Farouk Lakebir
Fighting the whole bout on the ground French representative demonstrated that his back-ground in wrestling was superior. The judges agreed giving the unanimous decision victory to Farouk.
Dmitry Samoilov vs Karl Amoussou (Pictures)
The fight started with an instant attack by Karl but Dmitry handled this rush pretty well taking his opponent to the horizontal dimension. Referee halted the bout immediately as it was too close to the ropes. Replacing the competitors in the center of the ring took much more time than one would expect as the referee seemd to forget the initial position of the fighters. The second when the bout was resumed both fighters broke the hold of each other and got to the feet. Dmitry punched his adversary but Karl returned the favor with the devastating highkick while standing up. He managed to deliver a couple blows to the head of unconscious Rus-sian before the referee decided to intervene.
Mikhail Zayats vs Christophe Daffreville
This was the most exciting and dynamic bout. The competitors punched each other while standing constantly aiming for a takedown where attack wouldn't stop even for a second and every submission attempt got nullified by excellent ground defense. However Red Devil's own was more active and seemed to be the first number during that encounter while the French-man was in defensive mode giving Mikhail run for his money though. By the end of the bout the judges even comprised of two Frenchmen had no doubt as for who'd come out with a W. Unanimous decision victory for Mikhail Zayats.
Kirill Sidelnikov vs Martin Soltisyk
The huge Martin rushed into the battle not paying any attention to the Kirill's hand stretched to greet his opponent. Aiming for the KO with hulk punches Martin initially pressed the action. Kirill correctly avoided his aggression, breaking the distance and delivering more accurate strikes and several knees. Couple minutes later it was Russian dictating the pace of the fight. So the logical conclusion of the confrontation was right hook courtesy of Kirill bringing KO loss to the Frenchman's record.
Photos can be found here:
http://www.m1mixfight.com/info/overviews/2008/3/5/M-1-Challenge-Russia-France/photos/
Here you can watch the highlights of Russia vs France bouts:
http://www.m1mixfight.com/multimedia/video/category/trailers/2008/3/url/
By the way Fedor held the seminar in Holland the day prior to the inaugural M-1 Challenge show.
The seminar was arranged by M-1 Global on the threshold of the inaugural M-1 Challenge show. Fedor demonstrated the parter game and submission and choke defense. Hegot as-sistance of his trainer Vladimir Voronov, Gilbert Yvel (Pictures), Gegard Mousasi (Pictures). Additionally, Fedor showed some technique on the likes of Ernesto Hoost (Pictures), Remy Bonjasky and Peter Aerts (Pictures). Pho-tos are below:
http://www.m1mixfight.com/news/2008/3/4/seminar/photos/
The most talented ones will earn an opportunity to be chosen to partake in major M-1 events. The teams consist of 5 athletes (in every weight class), one trainer and one coach. Every participating country brings two complete teams which then compete against each other. Every team members fights at least 4 times totally. As of yet, 2008 Challenge has been started and the Grand Finale is scheduled for the end of the year. The teams are split into the two groups:
Group A: 1.Russia (Red Devil), 2.France, 3.Korea, 4.Finland, 5.USA.
Group B: 1.the Netherlands, 2.Spain, 3.Russia (Legion), 4.Japan, 5.World Star Team.
Eventually, each group will have its winning team so that two finalists will collide during the Grand Finale. As an extra incentive M-1 gives $50.000 USD extra bonus to the winner of M-1 Challenge 2008.
The Dutch and Russian parties are responsible for the overall organization. Participating are also the teams from France, Finland, Japan, Korea, USA, Spain.
Representing the Netherlands among other athletes are Gegard Mousasi (Pictures), Jessie Gibbs and Jason Jones. Mousasi is probably the most well-known of the three, anyway Gibbs and Jones are considered quite talented prospects.
As for the Dutch fighters like Ricardo Wondel (+93), Jason Jones (-83) and Romano de los Reyes (-73), this is an opportunity of a lifetime when you get one unique chance to acquire experience of international level.
The French team is not shy of the talent, too. Heavyweight Komodo, Pride veteran David Baron (Pictures) and a huge talent in Carl Amoussou.
Then comes the Red Devil team under the guidance of none other than Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures). Erik Oganov (Pictures) and Kirill Sidelnikov have already gained popularity in their home country and will undoubtedly provide extra adrenaline in your veins.
The main person responsible for arranging M-1 Challenge events overall is Vadim Finkel-stein. Bertrand Amoussou will put on the show in France while Apy Echteld will be responsi-ble for Dutch M-1 Challenge events and Shinoda Sotaro will arrange the shows on the Japa-nese soil.
12 tournaments are scheduled to take place in 2008. The teams competing in M-1 Challenge are comprised of young aspiring and promising fighters from different countries: Japan, Ko-rea, Russia, USA, Brazil, Finland, Holland and France.
The rules for M-1 Challenge:
A bout consists of 2 rounds 5 minutes each and 90 seconds rest between the rounds. Knees are allowed stand-up. In parter only knees to the body are allowed. It's forbidden to strike a downed opponent while standing. Elbow strikes are only allowed to the body and legs. During the bout a fighter can get 3 warnings whereafter he'll be disqualified.
The review of Russia vs. France bouts + photos
On March, 2 Dutch Topsportcentrum in Almere experienced the first ever M-1 Challenge show when Russia (represented by Red Devil) took on France.
Surprisingly enough but completely deserved: in group A France was victorious against re-nowned Russian Red Devil team scoring 3-2 in its favor during the inaugural M-1 Challenge event. Being the better fighters that night were Russians Mikhail Zayats and Kirill Sidelnikov and, of course, French Karl Amoussou (Pictures).
The same night Dutch team (Bogdan Cristea, Romano de los Reyes, Jason Jones, Gegard Mousasi (Pictures) and Jessy Gibbs) took on the German neighbours in group B. In what seemed to be a walkover the event hosting country couldnt be more impressive with 5:0 score. Due to the elimination of Germany a new team was born. World Star Team will be comprised of the following athletes: Samuel Judes, Norman Paraisy (Pictures), Daniel Weichel, Bruno Carvalho and Michal Kita.
Mikhail Malyutin vs Bendy Casimir (Pictures)
First round was all parter and wrestling. Frenchman caught Mikhail in a hold and tried to ap-ply guillotine. Russian could avoid the critical situation and end up dominating Bendy. The rest of the round saw the volatile domination from both figters. In the round 2 the hard strug-gle resumed. Bendy switched from one submission attempt to another still with no success. Mikhail skillfully escaped all of them and answered with blows in parter. The fight finished and the judges gave the split decision to Bendy.
Erik Oganov (Pictures) vs Farouk Lakebir
Fighting the whole bout on the ground French representative demonstrated that his back-ground in wrestling was superior. The judges agreed giving the unanimous decision victory to Farouk.
Dmitry Samoilov vs Karl Amoussou (Pictures)
The fight started with an instant attack by Karl but Dmitry handled this rush pretty well taking his opponent to the horizontal dimension. Referee halted the bout immediately as it was too close to the ropes. Replacing the competitors in the center of the ring took much more time than one would expect as the referee seemd to forget the initial position of the fighters. The second when the bout was resumed both fighters broke the hold of each other and got to the feet. Dmitry punched his adversary but Karl returned the favor with the devastating highkick while standing up. He managed to deliver a couple blows to the head of unconscious Rus-sian before the referee decided to intervene.
Mikhail Zayats vs Christophe Daffreville
This was the most exciting and dynamic bout. The competitors punched each other while standing constantly aiming for a takedown where attack wouldn't stop even for a second and every submission attempt got nullified by excellent ground defense. However Red Devil's own was more active and seemed to be the first number during that encounter while the French-man was in defensive mode giving Mikhail run for his money though. By the end of the bout the judges even comprised of two Frenchmen had no doubt as for who'd come out with a W. Unanimous decision victory for Mikhail Zayats.
Kirill Sidelnikov vs Martin Soltisyk
The huge Martin rushed into the battle not paying any attention to the Kirill's hand stretched to greet his opponent. Aiming for the KO with hulk punches Martin initially pressed the action. Kirill correctly avoided his aggression, breaking the distance and delivering more accurate strikes and several knees. Couple minutes later it was Russian dictating the pace of the fight. So the logical conclusion of the confrontation was right hook courtesy of Kirill bringing KO loss to the Frenchman's record.
Photos can be found here:
http://www.m1mixfight.com/info/overviews/2008/3/5/M-1-Challenge-Russia-France/photos/
Here you can watch the highlights of Russia vs France bouts:
http://www.m1mixfight.com/multimedia/video/category/trailers/2008/3/url/
By the way Fedor held the seminar in Holland the day prior to the inaugural M-1 Challenge show.
The seminar was arranged by M-1 Global on the threshold of the inaugural M-1 Challenge show. Fedor demonstrated the parter game and submission and choke defense. Hegot as-sistance of his trainer Vladimir Voronov, Gilbert Yvel (Pictures), Gegard Mousasi (Pictures). Additionally, Fedor showed some technique on the likes of Ernesto Hoost (Pictures), Remy Bonjasky and Peter Aerts (Pictures). Pho-tos are below:
http://www.m1mixfight.com/news/2008/3/4/seminar/photos/
