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)

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.