Fighters.com tenth-ranked heavyweight Aleksander Emelianenko (13-3) beat Brazilian Silvao Santos (1-1) into the fetal position in the first round at M-1 Challenge in St. Petersburg Thursday.
Emelianenko’s teammates Amar Suloev (24-7) and Roman Zentsov (17-12) also scored wins for the home team, while Japanese fighters “Andre” Yuta Watanabe (8-1-3) and Ken Hamamura (14-4-4) picked-up victories on foreign soil.
In the same kind of Finkelsteinian matchmaking that has kept “The Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko (27-1) from meaningful MMA for over two-and-a-half years, li’l brother Aleks was paired with Santos whose only other professional MMA appearance ended in a split decision victory over that notorious gatekeeper to top ten contention, Edson Conterraneo (3-1).
Note my sarcasm.
The big Brazilian circled Russia’s finest before a shot stuffed and swept by Aleks into a textbook uchi mata makikomi toss landing Emelianenko in Santos’s half-guard.
Strong Santos stood out of Emelianenko’s half-mount, but into a near standing guillotine the Russian wrenched like a neck crank.
Emelianenko muscled Santos into a corner, released the choke, and hopped into a flying knee that effectively ended the fight.
Santos shot forward for a desperate single-leg lunge, but Emelianenko sprawled and pummeled the Brazilian with a series of rights as the referee dove to Santos’s rescue.
Emelianenko’s middleweight Red Devil Sport Club stablemate, Suloev, bounced back from a second round TKO to Chael Sonnen (20-9-1) last July to TKO Jacek Buczko (11-4), who hadn’t fought in two-and-a-half years, in the first round.
Heavyweight Zentsov also rebounded from an ‘07 stoppage loss to deal undersized Daniel Tabera (9-1-2) of Spain his first “L” in a two-round decision.
DEEP middleweight vet Watanabe dealt Ansar Chalangov (7-4) his fourth consecutive defeat in a first-round rear naked choke. It was Watanabe’s first fight out of country.
Welterweight Hamamura also ventured out of the “Land of the Rising Sun” for the first time to TKO Russia’s Islam Karimov (5-4-1) in the second round.
The event also saw Akhmet Sultanov (2-0) submit multi-promotion veteran Katsuhisa Fuji (8-14-1) in a first-round armbar.
Besiki Gerenava (5-0) won a decision over Pancrase vet Yuji Sakuragi (9-10-1).
U-File Camp’s Daisuke Nakamura (13-9) decisioned Juri Ivlev (4-3).
Victor Nemkov (1-0) debuted with a triangle choke submission of fellow rookie Christian Bombay (0-1).
Team Scandinavia’s Jarno Nurminen (2-1) forced Ji Hoon Kim’s (1-6) corner to throw in the towel in the first round.
Heavyweight Fin Toni Valtonen (15-7) submitted South Korean Seung Hyun Choi (0-2) in a rear naked choke in the first round.
Hyun Gyu Lim (2-1-1) knocked out Brazil’s Lucio Linhares (7-3) in the first round.
Lightweight Janne Tulirinta (7-2) TKO’d Doo Won Seo (1-2) in round two.
Finally, lightweight Niko Puhakka (11-6) of Finland submitted Jong Man Kim (3-5-2) in a triangle choke in round one.
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.
