Sherdog's Evgeni Kogan reports from St. Petersburg, Russia with the country's top mixed martial arts teams as they prepare for the M-1 Challenge series.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -- When you are about 600 kilometers from the North Pole, the only thing worse than the long, frozen winter is a frozen summer.

I'm at the "Olympic Dreams" complex living with the Red Devil Sport Club and Legion Fight teams as they prepare to face fighters from Finnish and Spanish squads in the M-1 Challenge series on June 27.

The outdoor event is just two days away and all eyes are on the sky. Flying in from a sunny 80-degree day in Moscow, I wasn't prepared for 50 degrees and driving rain in the City on the Neva. Though the weather forecast is good for Friday, the last few days have apparently been horrific. No one here is really talking about it, pretending that if they ignore the blizzard outside that will make everything OK. (Russians outspoken on the weather portend bad things.)

Completing the last of their training schedules are the Red Devil fighters I knew from last year: Mikhail Malutin, Erik Oganov (Pictures), Dmitry Samoilov, Mikhail Zayats and Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures)'s protégé, Kirill Sidelnikov.

Hailing from Rostov-on-Don, the Legion Fight team is represented by Yuri Ivlev, Islam Karimov, Ansar Chalangov (Pictures), Besike Gerinava and Akhmet Sultanov, who upset Eric Pele (Pictures) at Bodog Fight in Moscow last year.

I made a lot of friends at "Olympic Dreams" last year. My arrival was greeted very warmly, but not without hiccups. It never ceases to amaze me the reach Sherdog.com has in Russia, even amongst non-English speakers. Every time I am with Russian fighters, I am deluged with a barrage of requests for name changes, result changes and other amendments to the Sherdog Fight Finder.

This time, Malutin accused me of purposefully toying with him by changing half of his results, making wins losses and getting rid of some fights altogether. Going beyond accusations -- and taking over the reigns of journalist abuse from the absent Arman Gambaryan -- Malutin offered to beat me up as a warm down for today's schedule.

I briefly considered his offer and politely declined, citing my desire NOT to get beaten up. Then just to prove a point, I shoulder checked him in the hallway and kept walking without looking back. Tom Cruise in "Top Gun" wishes he was this cool.

Even with their problems with the fight finder, I am happy that we are held in such high regard so far away. This is also why I'll be sitting in the front row of the invite-only seating on the floating pontoon. Ensconced amongst oligarchs, their bejeweled wives and girlfriends, I will wear my 1980's Nike hoodie and faded jeans while baffling everyone with my presence.

Who said MMA journalism wasn't glamorous?

Looking outside, I see the setting sun, through a cloudless sky, playing on the chrome work of the cars parked outside. Weather prediction here seems almost as fickle as fight predictions in MMA. It's still "White Nights" here, a phenomenon based on the extreme northern latitude of the city. The sun will set but the sky will remain light the whole night. It's an ideal time for MMA outdoors and we all hope the weather will come to the party.

The guys from Legion Fight have completed a few grappling drills: Karimov and Gerinava worked out a few kinks in their triangle choke application and defense tactics. It was really interesting to see the difference that a small twist of the hips made to the maneuver. Gerinava would get Karimov in the choke, but nothing would happen. Karimov couldn't escape, but wasn't actually being choked. Karimov then demonstrated the difference: a twist of the hips and thighs to the left or right (depending which leg is doing the hooking) by about 15 degrees. Gerinava's face flooded with blood and he tapped instantly.

That was the highlight of the day's training. It's almost 11 p.m. now and the "Olympic Dreams" center is quiet. A few of the guys are watching Turkey and Germany play in Euro 2008 soccer tournament. Others have gone to the movies or are relaxing in their rooms, pondering the events of next few days.

One interesting training tactic I've noted is that none of them will be watching combat sports of any kind. Team trainers Vladimir Mihailovich Voronov and Alexander Vasilievich Michkov believe their fighters need to get their minds off fighting when events are near. It's a paradoxically meditative, Buddhist approach to the art of hurting people. Training, especially when the strategies have been worked out, is mostly for the body now, for muscle memory and to fine-tune techniques.

I am working here in the office of M-1 Mixfight and it goes without saying that I am privy to certain information that will not grace these pages. However, it is beyond my strength and journalistic integrity not to include moments like the one we had today involving Voronov's shorts and indignant dry cleaners. There isn't much of a story here, except that the dry cleaners in question refused to take Voronov's shorts and that one of the girls in the office offered to take them home and wash them with bathroom cleaner. Why? I don't know. Sometimes speculation is so much better than the truth.

And on that fine note I will have to leave you for today. There is much to do and see tomorrow: the arrival of Spanish and Finnish fighters, weigh-ins in the afternoon and final training. No one seems to be suffering with their weight, though they compulsively check the scales after every meal like teenage girls.

Goodbye from "Olympic Dreams" in St Petersburg, Russia. Until tomorrow …