Gilbert Yvel to Co-Headline M-1 Challenge with Emelianenko

Heavyweight “Hurricaine” Gilbert Yvel (30-12-1) will fight in the co-main event at M-1 Challenge 9 in St. Petersburg 21 November versus an opponent to be named soon, Fighters.com learned from M-1’s Russian division today.

M-1 told Fighters.com that Yvel will not rematch Red Devil heavyweight Roman Zentsov (17-12), who knocked Yvel out in a 2006 PRIDE fight.

The event will be lead by the return of Fighters.com’s tenth-ranked heavyweight Aleksander Emelianenko (12-3) after the commission debacle before Affliction’s debut in Anaheim, east of Los Angeles, 19 July.  Emelianenko will fight Korean Sang Soo Lee (9-4).

The event will also feature a team format with bouts between Russia’s Red Devil team versus Korea and Russia’s Legion team versus Holland.

The Red Devil versus Korea match-ups will be lead by a light heavyweight bout between Red Devil’s Mikhail Zayats (7-1) and Korea’s Eun Soo Lee (9-0).

Zayats made John Cornett (5-4) verbally submit at M-1 Challenge 7 in Nottingham 27 September.

Lee won a unanimous decision over Daijiro Matsui (10-18-4) at DEEP Gladiator Okayama 16 August and will make his M-1 debut in St. Petersburg.

The Legion versus Holland match-ups will be highlighted by a middleweight fight between “Russian Warrior” Ansar Chalangov (8-3) versus Jason Jones (5-2).

Chalangov tapped Eulogio Fernandez (0-1) in a toe hold at M-1 Challenge 4 in St. Petersburg 27 June.

Jones lost a UD to Riki Fukuda (10-3) DEEP 38 in Tokyo last Thursday.

The rest of the card includes:

Yuri Ivlev (1-0) v Bogdan Cristea (4-2-1)
Islam Karimov (2-3) v Romano Delos (0-0)
Besike Gerinava (5-0) v Kamil Uygun (6-3)
Akhmed Sultanov (1-1) v TBD

Mikhail Malutin (7-5) v Soo Yong Kim  (1-0)
Erik Oganov (8-7) v Do Hyung Kim (9-5)
Dmitry Samoilov (5-4) v Min Suk Heo (1-2)
Kiril Sidelnikov (3-1) v Jang Yong Kim (1-1)