Worldwide MMA Preview – EFN, KSW and ACB Glasgow

Eurasia Fight Nights 52 will kick off the weekend’s action in Russia with the action starting on UFC Fight Pass at 3pm BST. Mikhail Mokhnatkin will take on Fabio Maldonado at heavyweight in the main event. Mokhnatkin has extensive experience in Combat Sambo where he holds the rank of “Master of Sambo”. He usually competes at light heavyweight in MMA, where he has had considerable success on the Russian regional scene. He lost his first professional fight but has not tasted defeat in MMA since then with eight wins and two draws. He has wins against Valentijn Overeem and UFC veteran Ednaldo Oliveira. The first draw came against Rizin GP runner up Jiri Prochazka while the second came in his latest fight, a heavyweight bout against Bulgaria’s Alexei Kudin in April. Maldonado had a long tenure in the UFC going between light heavyweight and heavyweight, after parting ways with the UFC following defeat to Corey Anderson Maldonado moved on to begin a career in professional boxing and took part in a few bouts in his native Brazil. He was pulled back into MMA by an offer to fight Fedor Emelianenko. They tussled in June in what was an incredible bout, Maldonado had Fedor in all sorts of trouble in round 1 and was very close to stopping him, Fedor came back and took a controversial majority decision victory. Maldonado did enough to prove that he is no slouch and Mokhnatkin will have to deal with the size of heavyweight better than he did against Kudin if he wants to pick up the win.

Next up is KSW 36 which is live from Poland at 4pm BST on Saturday afternoon. The card is headlined by a middleweight fight between submission specialist Rousimar Palhares and local favourite Michal Materla. Materla was KSW middleweight champion for a long time until eventually his reign was ended by Mamed Khalidov in November 2015. He got back to winning ways this year by stopping Antoni Chmielewski in the first round. Palhares has been dogged by controversy in recent years, after being released from the UFC for holding submissions for too long he won three fights in WSOF but was again in trouble after his win over Jake Shields. This lead to him taking a fight in Italy earlier in the year where he suffered a shock defeat to Emil Weber Meek.

In the co-main event Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou will challenge Tomasz Narkun for the light heavyweight title. Sokoudjou beat Matt Hamill at that same Venator card where Palhares was beaten, that victory snapped a run of two defeats in a row, he lost to Linton Vassell in Bellator and then to Paul Buentello in Abu Dhabi. Narkun beat Goran Reljic to claim the KSW light heavyweight title in 2015 in what was his second attempt at winning a major European title, as he lost to Vyacheslav Vasilevsky early in his career in an attempt to win the M-1 light heavyweight title.Narkun defended his KSW title with a quick KO win over Cassio de Oliveira in March to set up this fight with a big name.

Finally we come to ACB Glasgow, the card from the The SSE Hydro begins at 4.30pm BST and his headlined by local man Robert Whiteford taking on France’s Kevin Petshi. Petshi has been competing on the European scene since 2012, his first defeat came to rising star Paddy Pimblett with his second to Chechen fighter Salman Zhamaldaev. Petshi’s last fight took place at bantamweight and he will be at a considerable size disadvantage against Whiteford.

Northern Ireland’s Norman Parke will compete in the co-main event, taking on Andrew Fisher at lightweight. Parke had a long run in the UFC and is now looking to put an impressive run together to get back into the promotion. His final fight in the UFC was a decision loss to Rustam Khabilov in February and this will be his first fight outside the UFC since summer 2012. Fisher has been competing in the UK regional scene since 2007 and he was signed to Bellator as a highly touted prospect back in 2013, unfortunately it didn’t quite work out for him. He hit another stumbling block after Bellator when he lost to Artem Lobov in the final second of a fight in Cage Warriors. Fisher bounced back by picking up two victories in 2015 and is ready for another run.