We have a packed weekend of fighting in store with some of the biggest promotions in the world putting on shows throughout the weekend.
First up is M-1 Challenge 64 from Moscow, Russia. The main event is a title fight between two of Europe’s finest heavyweights. Alexander Volkov returns to fight in Russia after a lengthy stint in Bellator. He was initially successful, winning tournaments in 2012 and 2014 but finished his run with decision losses to Tony Johnson Jr and Cheick Kongo. At 27 years of age you could almost consider Volkov a prospect at heavyweight but he has 30 fights on his record and it is hard to see him improving his grappling enough to ever be a force at the highest level. His opponent for the vacant title will be Denis Smoldarev who more fits the mould of a prospect. The 25 year old Estonian has an 11-1 record with his only defeat coming to recent UFC signing Marcin Tybura. He has fought decent opposition in M-1 but no big names, Ante Delija and Maro Perak are amongst his best wins. This is about as good as a heavyweight fight outside the UFC can get so I am really looking forward to this.
Two very experienced middleweights will throw down in the co-main event. Even though he is currently suspended in America, Alexander Shlemenko will compete in his native Russia with impunity. Shlemenko has over 50 MMA wins and over a dozen fights in Bellator where he was quite successful. Shlemenko is primarily a striker with both of his recent defeats coming by way of submission. He will fight former M-1 middleweight champion Vyacheslav Vasilevsky. “Slava” as he is commonly known has only been finished once in his 30 MMA fights. That finish came against Ramazan Emeev last year when he was submitted in the first round. Included on his record is a short stint in Bellator which was ended by a loss to Maiquel Falcao that he later avenged. The winner of this fight will meet the winner of a fight between Falcao and Emeev at M-1’s next card.
Bellator 149 from Houston, Texas deserves a mention here of course, while Bellator can claim to be the number two MMA promotion in the world, Firday nights card is all about the freakshow. The main event is a rematch of UFC 1 in 1993 as Royce Gracie takes on Ken Shamrock. The two need no introduction at this point. Shamrock returned to MMA last year in a losing effort to Kimbo Slice, his last appearance previous to that was in 2010. Gracie last fought in 2007 in a steroid enhanced victory over his great rival Kazushi Sakuraba. This fight may be the oldest MMA fight ever, with the two combatants at a combined age of 101.
Things stay silly in the co-main event as two Miami street fighting personalities do battle. Kimbo Slice made his MMA debut all the way back in 2007 but he never developed much of a rounded MMA game and his knees started to disintegrate. Dada 5000 is a former bodyguard for Slice and was the star of Netflix documentary Dawg Fight. He has two MMA fights under his belt with two wins, although his opponents are a combined 1-16.
The rest of the main card has some more relevant fights, such as former light heavyweight champion Emanuel Newton in a rematch with Britain’s Linton Vassell and Melvin Guillard tries to bounce back from a disappointing Bellator debut.
While RFA 35 features a lightweight title fight I am more interested in seeing heavyweight prospect Curtis Blaydes. Blaydes has a good amatuer wrestling background and has looked flawless in his four fight MMA career. When young and athletic heavyweights pop in MMA people tend to take notice. If he comes through against Luis Cortez, and he really should then I would like to see Blaydes fight some slightly stiffer competition but it can be tough to find suitable opponents at heavyweight on the regional scene.
Also on Friday night, Victory FC will bring its square cage to UFC Fight Pass for the second time. The card is headlined by a welterweight title fight between Jason Jackson and Victor Moreno. Jackson competed on the team season of The Ultimate Fighter for Blackzilians, going 1-1 on the show. He is 4-2 in professional MMA with the defeats coming to UFC fighters Hayder Hassan and Colby Covington. Moreno is a veteran of the regional scene with over 50 fights under his belt. His most recent outing was a defeat to another member of the Blackzilians that competed on the show, Valdir Araujo.
Opening up the action on Saturday is One FC with a show in Jakarta, Indonesia. It is a middling effort from One, while it does not contain any title fights it has a main card that contains plenty of experience. Luis “Sapo” Santos will compete in the main event, he was responsible for a debacle in November when his fight with Ben Askren was scrapped at the last minute when Santos was unable to make weight, the match was a rematch after their first contest was ruled a no contest due to an eye poke. Santos has seen it all in MMA with over 70 fights, but he will be fighting someone equally as experienced as Portugal’s Rafael Silva has over 50 fights himself. Silva has fought all over Europe but his two previous trips to Asia have ended in defeat.
The other One FC staples slated to compete include Vincent Latoel, Kotetsu Boku, Andrew Leone and Koetsu Okazaki.
Saturday night we have World Series of Fighting 28 from California. Bantamweight champion Marlon Moraes will fight in the main event against Joe Barajas. Moraes has been fighting with WSOF since its inception and he is the promotion’s only bantamweight champion. While he has certainly been impressive of late the level of his competition must be questioned. With 20 MMA fights and a career stretching back to 2007 it really is time for Moraes to fight higher quality fighters and WSOF just cannot provide that right now. It is a shame to watch him waste his prime against fighters that he is easily beating. He is a massive favourite again here against 12-1 Barajas. It is worrying that Barajas has many fights in XplodeMMA and Gladiator challenge which are two of the weakest regional promotions in America, both are frequently guilty of promoting heinous mismatches. Barajs lone defeat came in 2014 against former UFC fighter Sirwan Kakai.
The co-main event may very well feature the answer to my complaints about a lack of quality opponents for Moraes. Timur Valiev is a 26 year old Dagestani fighter who has been impressive since debuting in America. Valiev compiled a 6-1 record before making the move to WSOF, with the defeat coming in his MMA debut. In WSOF he has won his first four fights and a win here against Chris Gutierrez should get him a title shot.
0 comments