M-1 Challenge 48 Official Discussion

There you have it, the preliminary version of the next M-1 Challenge card has been released. The event in itself is kind of a fill-in, since the original M-1 Challenge 48 has been pushed back and finally renamed to M-1 Challenge 49 while this event was put in between and numbered 48.

The card itself, being a fill-in, is not as strong as usual. It has some fighters making their pro debuts and being in Kazakhstan, it also features some less (little) known Kazakhstan/Tajikistan/Georgian etc. fighters instead of the usual M-1 stars (a Battle of Nomads indeed). It also features Max Coga, who's trying to rebound after his last 15 seconds KO at the hands of the Swedish star Niklas Backstrom, which he's planning to accomplish by going up a weight class and taking on the undefeated Ukrainian Maxim Divnich.

The main event itself is "the fight that should have been". Dennis Smoldarev was supposed to meat Kostia Gluhov in the semi-finals of the M-1 Heavyweight Grand Prix in August last year, but due to an injury he sustained in training, the fight was scrapped. Gluhov instead got a bye to the finals, where he faced (and lost to) the tournament alternate and rising Polish star Marcin Tybura (who has then become the #1 contender for the M-1 HW Title before the champion got injured too). Since then Smoldarev has made his come back by defeating the Croatian HW star Ante Delija, while Gluhov, after losing to Tybura, has suffered a DQ "loss" to Mikhail Gazaev where after a very frustrating fight in which Gazaev kept crawling around on his knees with one hand constantly touching the ground to avoid striking exchanges he finally had enough in the 3rd round and KO'd Gazaev with a kick to the head when the former was making another of his monkey impressions. After that he decisively beat his former rival (and also former M-1 HW champion) Kenny Garner in a rematch and then made short work of Valentijn Overeem in another rematch to set up this fight.

In another "was supposed to be" battle the Ukrainian striker Pavel Vitruk faces his would-be opponent from March. In one of many shake-ups on the M-1 Challenge 46 card Vitruk and Spaniard Agoney Romero were finally scheduled to face each other... that is until (according to M-1) Romero lost his passport somewhere on the road between Spain and Germany and was forcibly deported back home on the day he was supposed to arrive in Saint Petersburg. Vitruk instead faced his 3rd opponent, the unknown Brazilian import Clayton Santos, whom he defeated without much trouble. Will this time Romero manage to finish his journey all the way to Kazakhstan or will he again be stopped somewhere along the way? Only time will tell.

The card will also be proceeded by six of the Asian WMMAA finals (one in each weight class), piggybacking on the M-1 card similar to the previous ones. So be prepared for it to start earlier than announced (the timer is set comfortably back this time to avoid any mishaps) and if you tune in to the stream early, don't be surprised to see some unfamiliar guys fighting in a mostly empty arena.

* Edited at 05.05.2014, 11:19 PM ET *

At a family thing so can't watch the fights so I'll just sit here and upvote you guys while you keep posting what's going on :)

Magomedov is a stud!! 

10 seconds left ? lets hug and shake hands .

was he wearing a flyers hat?

ah i didn't notice at @dontbescared maybe tho one guy earlier had a Team Cruz hat on .

@Cthulhu Im going to my brothers for dinner at 5 so i should be at your house around 7 or so

I have a feeling Russians did not fully understand Rocky IV 

Well that was easy enough

agon romero vs pavel vitruk canceled


live results http://www.mixfight.ru/news/2014/5/24/on_line_challenge_48/

* Edited at 05.24.2014, 12:06 PM ET *

HOLY **** DAT KNEE

This dude has been down for way too long

Please tell me someone caught a gif of that knee

This is not good