2011 M-1 Challenge season


The 2011 M-1 Challenge season was the fourth season of mixed martial arts fighting presented by the M-1 Global promotion. The season began on March 5.

Events

M-1 Challenge XXIII: Grishin vs. Guram

The first M-1 Challenge event of 2011 took place on March 5, 2011, at the Crocus City in Moscow, Russia.

Main card (Russia 2 TV)

  • Heavyweight Championship bout: Guram Gugenishvili vs. Maxim Grishin
  • Welterweight Championship bout: Shamil Zavurov vs. Tom Gallicchio
  • Welterweight bout: Rashid Magomedov vs. Rafał Moks
  • Lightweight bout: Mairbek Taisumov vs. Yuri Ivlev
  • '''Middleweight bout: Magomed Sultanakhmedov vs. Plinio Cruz'''

Preliminary card (stream on mixfight.ru)

  • Middleweight bout: Magomedrasul Khasbulaev vs. Daniel Weichel
  • Heavyweight bout: Goncalo Salgado vs. Arsen Abdulkerimov
  • Light heavyweight bout: Igor Savelyev vs. Byron Byrd
  • Light heavyweight bout: Shamil Tinagadjiev vs. Tomasz Narkun
  • Light heavyweight bout: Maxim Bulahtin vs. Magomed Ismailov
  • '''Lightweight bout: Vusal Bairamov vs. Nikolai Kaushansky'''

M-1 Challenge XXIV: Damkovsky vs. Figueroa

The second M-1 Challenge event took place on March 25, 2011, at the Ted Constant Convocation Center in Norfolk, Virginia. This event marked the first M-1 show in the United States since 2009 and aired live on the Showtime cable network. The event drew an estimated 189,000 viewers on Showtime.
Due to problems with his visa Arthur Guseinov was unable to compete. Josh Bakkalao got injured during practice and was unable to face Alexander Sarnavskiy. He was replaced by Beau Baker.

Main card (Showtime TV)

  • Lightweight Championship bout: Artiom Damkovsky vs. Jose Figueroa
  • Middleweight Championship bout: Magomed Sultanakhmedov vs. Tyson Jeffries
  • Light heavyweight bout: Vinny Magalhaes vs. Jake Doerr
  • Middleweight bout: Jason Norwood vs. Mojo Horne
  • '''Lightweight bout: Alexander Sarnavskiy vs. Beau Baker'''

Preliminary card

  • Bantamweight bout: Marcus Daniels vs. Bryan Lasham
  • Featherweight bout: Bethany Marshall vs. Stacy Grant
  • Welterweight bout: Brian Nielson vs. Colton Smith
  • Heavyweight bout: Johnny Curtis vs. Bobby Gurley
  • Lightweight bout: George Sheppard vs. David Derby
  • '''Bantamweight bout: Jessie Riggleman vs. Jason Hilliker'''

M-1 Challenge XXV: Zavurov vs. Enomoto

28 April 2011 Ice Palace Saint Petersburg in St.Petersburg, Russia.
Today it was announced that Dmitry Samoilov and Mike Guerin were injured during the training process and, unfortunately, will not be able to take part in the tournament M-1 Challenge XXV. Zavurov vs Magomedov. Rashid Magomedov was seriously injured and was out of title bout with Shamil Zavurov. M-1 Global has made every effort to in such a short period of time to find a worthy replacement, and literally a few minutes ago to sign the exclusive contract with M-1 Global has put Swiss welterweight Yasubi Enomoto, who last year was a finalist at the Grand Prix at Sengoku in his weight class.

Main card (Russia 2 TV)

Preliminary card (stream on mixfight.ru)

  • Welterweight bout: Juan Manuel Suarez vs. Arsen Temirkhanov
  • Middleweight bout: Murad Magomedov vs. Ramazan Emeev
  • '''Welterweight bout: Ramazan Esenbaev vs. Albert Akhmetov'''

M-1 European Battle

June 4, 2011 ACCO International Center Kyiv, Ukraine

Main card (Ustream.com)

  • Welterweight bout: Yasubey Enomoto vs. Rafał Moks
  • Lightweight bout: Yuri Ivlev vs. Artiom Damkovsky
  • Welterweight bout: Alexander Agafonov vs. Husein Haliev
  • '''Lightweight bout: Vugar Bakhshiev vs. Antun Račić'''

Preliminary card

  • Lightweight bout: Alexander Kozyr vs. Semen Tyrlya
  • Welterweight bout: Vadim Khaitulov vs. Viktor Talashov
  • Middleweight bout: Ruslan Khaskhanov vs. Andrei Dryapko
  • Light Heavyweight bout: Saparbek Safarov vs. Denis Ivanets
  • '''Heavyweight bout: Igor Zadernovsky vs. Yuri Snegovskoy'''

European Gran Prix

  • Lightweight bout: Farkhad Fatalla vs. Ilya Tiunov
  • Lightweight bout: Serhiy Adamchuk vs. Sergey Sinkevich
  • Welterweight bout: Vladimir Opanasenko vs. Syanan Yusibov
  • Welterweight bout: Vasily Novikov vs. Alexander Nimerenko
  • '''Middleweight bout: Alexander Dolotenko vs. Filip Anasovich'''

M-1 Challenge XXVI: Bennett vs. Garner II

The second M-1 Challenge event to air on Showtime took place on July 8, 2011, in Costa Mesa, California. Guram Gugenishvili was originally announced for the main event, but suffered a hand injury and was replaced by Garner.

Main card (Showtime TV)

  • Heavyweight bout: Kenny Garner vs. Pat Bennett
  • Middleweight bout: Arthur Guseinov vs. Tyson Jeffries
  • Lightweight bout: Mairbek Taisumov vs. Josh Bakkalao
  • Lightweight bout: Daniel Weichel vs. Beau Baker
  • '''Middleweight bout: Eddie Arizmendi vs. Jason Norwood'''

Preliminary card (Allboxing.tv)

  • Lightweight bout: Max Martyniouk vs. Mike De Robles
  • '''Lightweight bout: Diman Morris vs. Brandon Michaels'''

M-1 Challenge XXVII: Magalhaes vs. Zayats

The third M-1 Challenge show on Showtime took place on October 14, 2011, at the Grand Canyon University Arena in Phoenix, Arizona.
Heavyweight champion Guram Gugenishvili was originally set to defend his title in a rematch against Kenny Garner, but pulled out of the bout due to an elbow injury.

Main card (Showtime TV)

  • Light Heavyweight Championship bout: Vinny Magalhaes vs. Mikhail Zayats
  • Heavyweight Interim Championship bout: Kenny Garner vs. Maxim Grishin
  • Middleweight bout: Eddie Arizmendi vs. Arthur Guseinov
  • Welterweight bout: Josh Thorpe vs. Yasubey Enomoto
  • '''Welterweight bout: Tom Gallicchio vs. Daniel Madrid'''

Preliminary card

  • Catchweight bout: Ryan Crouch vs. Fredrik Lumpkin
  • '''Welterweight bout: Mike Chavez vs. Joe Martinez'''

M-1 Challenge XXVIII: Emelianenko vs. Malikov

12 November, Star Centre, Astrakhan, Astrakhan Oblast
Shamil Zavurov was expected to defend his title against Rashid Magomedov on this card, but had to withdraw due to knee injury.

Main Card (PPV and Russia 2)

  • Heavyweight bout: Alexander Emelianenko vs. Magomed Malikov
  • Light Heavyweight bout: Alihan Magomedov vs. Isaiah Larson
  • '''Lightweight bout: Vugar Bakhshiev vs. Yves Landu'''

Preliminary card

  • Middleweight bout: Anton Kostishchin vs. David Beaudrier
M-1 Selection: GP 84 kg
  • Middleweight bout: Enoc Solves Torres vs. Ruslan Khaskhanov
  • Middleweight bout: Jan Zdansky vs. Anatoly Tokov
  • Middleweight bout: Sunay Hamidov vs. Alexei Martinov
  • '''Middleweight bout: Gregory Babene vs. Alexander Dolotenko'''

M-1 Challenge XXIX: Samoilov vs. Miranda

19 November, Ufa Arena, Ufa, Bashkortostan
Vyacheslav Vasilevsky again was traumatized in a hand and according to its command, doctors have forbidden it to act until January, 2012.

Main Card

  • Middleweight bout: Dmitry Samoilov vs. Mario Miranda
  • Lightweight bout: Antun Račić vs. Artiom Damkovsky
  • Middleweight bout: Arsen Temirkhanov vs. Christian Eckerlin
  • Welterweight bout: Erik Oganov vs. Daniel Madrid
  • Middleweight bout: Magomed Aropkhanov vs. Marat Gafurov
  • Middleweight bout: Ramazan Emeev vs. Ruslan Nadzhafaliev
  • '''Welterweight bout: Julio Cesar de Almeida vs. Bahtiyar Arzumanov'''

Preliminary card

  • Heavyweight bout: Mikhail Istomin vs. Timur Shihmagomedov
M-1 Selection: GP +93 kg
  • Heavyweight bout: Denis Komkin vs. Ruslan Stepanyan
  • Heavyweight bout: Taimur Aslanov vs. Denis Goltsov
  • Heavyweight bout: Akhmed Sultanov vs. Vladimir Kuchenko
  • '''Heavyweight bout: Denis Smoldarev vs. Niyazi Safarov'''

M-1 Global: Fedor vs. Monson

M-1 Global: Fedor vs. Monson was a mixed martial arts event held by M-1 Global. The event took place on November 20, 2011, at the Olympic Stadium in Moscow, Russia. In the main fight Fedor Emelianenko defeated Jeff Monson via unanimous decision.
At the end of the heavyweight bout, Vladimir Putin entered the ring to congratulate the winner, Fedor Emelianenko, and gave a speech. The crowd booed during the speech; although some Russian media reports claimed that they had been booing the American loser, Jeff Monson, BBC News reported that several crowd members had stressed that they were booing Putin, and regarded Monson as an honorable loser.

Main card

  • Heavyweight bout: Fedor Emelianenko vs. Jeff Monson
  • Lightweight Championship bout: Jose Figueroa vs. Daniel Weichel
  • Welterweight bout: Alexander Yakovlev vs. Juan Manuel Suarez
  • Lightweight bout: Yuri Ivlev vs. Jerome Bouisson
  • Lightweight bout: Mairbek Taisumov vs. Joshua Thorpe
  • '''Middleweight bout: Albert Duraev vs. Xavier Foupa-Pokam'''

Preliminary card

  • Heavyweight bout: Alexander Volkov vs. Arsen Abdulkerimov
  • Light Heavyweight bout: Salim Davidov vs. Sergey Kornev
  • Lightweight bout: Mikhail Malyutin vs. Seydina Seck
  • '''Lightweight bout: Nicholas Kaushansky vs. Alexander Vinogradov'''

M-1 Challenge XXX: Shamil Zavurov vs. Yasubey Enomoto II

This event took place on December 9, 2011, at The Hangar at the O.C. Fair and Events Center in Costa Mesa, California. It aired live on the Showtime cable network.
Alexander Sarnavskiy was scheduled to face Francisco Drinaldo, but the bout was cancelled when Drinaldo suffered an injury. Sarnavskiy instead faced Sergio Cortez.

Main Card (Showtime)