M-1 Challenge report from Gran Canaria

[M-1 Challenge]

Most people go to Gran Canaria for a sunny Hollyday , but not the M-1 Challenge teams.
Fighters from Spain, Finland, the USA and the Netherlands all gathered for the third edition of the already welknown M-1 Challenge.


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The M-1 Challenge is an initiative of Vadim Finkelchtein and Fedor Emilianenko.
The idea behind it is that aspiring young MMA fighters get the chance to present themselves on an international level. For this first M-1 Challenge the participating teams are in:
Poule A : The Netherlands, Spain, Japan and the World Team (previously known as team Germany)
Poule B : Red Devil Russia, Russia Legion, Korea and France.

Up to now The Netherlands defeated The World Team with 5 – 0 in Poule A and France won by 3 – 2 from Red Devil Russia in Poule B in the first round that took place in Almere in Holland March 2008. One month later the second round was scheduled in former Russian Presidents Poetin’s hometown St. Petersburg.
I’ts good to know that Poetin and his longtime friend from Italy Silvio Berlusconi were invited by M-1’s initiator Vadim to attend a M-1 MMA show last year April, which they accepted.

In poule A Russian Legion faced The Japanese team which ended in a 3 -2 victory for the fighters of the Rising sun. And in poule B Finland demolished Korea with 4-1.
So at the start of this editon Holland was leading in Poule A and Finland in B.

Gegard Mousasi, Dutch team member has been replaced by Kamil Uygun due to his participation in de Dream GP.
The Spanish team with worldclass fighter Daniel Tabera as a member will fight the Dutch team in their first appearance in the Challenge.

In the other poule the Newcomer is the USA team. They face the tough task to defeat the strong Finnish team which is the other poule leader.
By tomorrownight the MMA world will know if Dutch and Finnish will still be the leaders in the M-1 Challenge.


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WELCOME TO GRAN CANARIA

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[M-1 Challenge]

FRIDAY MAY THE 30TH

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Photo’s by: PAYAP PHOTOGRAPHY



Schema M-1 Challenge:


b]2-3-2008[/b] Holland Red Devil VS France

Holland VS WORLD TEAM


3-4-2008 Russia KOREA VS FINLAND

RUSSIA LEGION VS JAPAN


31-5-2008 Spain FINLAND VS USA

SPAIN VS HOLLAND


27-6-2008 Russia RED DEVIL VS FINLAND

RUSSIA LEGION VS SPAIN


17-7-2008 Japan FRANCE VS USA

JAPAN VS HOLLAND


24-8-2008 Korea KOREA VS USA

WORLD TEAM VS JAPAN


25-9-2008 Russia RED DEVIL VS USA

WORLD TEAM VS RUSSIAN LEGION


11-10-2008 France FRANCE VS KOREA

JAPAN VS SPAIN


17-11-2008 Russia KOREA VS RED DEVIL

RUSSIA LEGION VS HOLLAND


30-11-2008 Finland FINLAND VS FRANCE


SPAIN VS WORLD TEAM


31-12-2008 Japan FINALE: SAITAMA ARENA

[xavion]

Great pictures!

[krikit]

Yea good stuff, thanks.

[M-1 Challenge]

M-1 CHALLENGE GRAN CANARIA





Most people go to Gran Canaria for a Hollyday to enjoy the sun, the sea, the beaches and the Spanish food, but not so the Mixed Martial Arts M-1 Challenge teams.

Participators from Spain, Finland, the USA and the Netherlands all gathered for the third edition of the already welknown M-1 Challenge.

The idea behind the M-1 Challenge, an initiative of Vadim Finkelchtein and Fedor Emilianenko, is that upcoming young talented MMA fighters get the chance to present themselves on an international level.

For this first M-1 Challenge the participating teams in poule A are: Holland, Spain, Japan, Russian Legion and the World Team (previously stated as team Germany).

Poule B : Red Devil Russia, USA, Korea, Finland and France.

Up to now in the first edition that took place in Almere in Holland March 2008 the Dutch demolished the World Team with 5 – 0 in Poule A and France won by 3 – 2 from Red Devil Russia in Poule B. One month later the second edition was scheduled in former Russian Presidents Poetin’s hometown St. Petersburg.

It is worth knowing that Poetin and his longtime friend from Italy Silvio Berlusconi could be seen sitting ringside at a St. Petersburg M-1 MMA show last year April, after accepting an invitation that was made to them by Vadim. At the same show action moviestar Jean Claude van Damme made his appearances near the ring.

In poule A Russian Legion faced The Japanese team which ended in a 3 -2 victory for the fighters of the rising sun and in poule B Finland convincingly defeated Korea with 4-1.

So at the start of this third editon Holland and Finland were leading the poules.

Due to his participation in the Dream GP Dutch team member Gegard Mousasi has been replaced by Kamil Uygun.

The Spanish team with worldclass fighter Daniel Tabera as one of the representatives will fight the Dutch team in their first appearance in the Challenge.

In the other poule the newcomer is the USA team. They face the tough task to defeat the strong Finnish team which is the other poule leader.





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The event took place in the open air and started with a demonstration Lucha Canaries,

The local fighting system which best can be compared with a mixture between sambo, sumo and judo.

The fighters wear shorts with rolled up seams that were strong enough to grab, pull, lift and throw. All of the demonstrators were type of a giant so well above 100 kg. So one can imagine that the ring was crowded when six of them entered.

After the demo the team meeting started. The referees were Daisuke Noguchi from Japan an Marco Broersen from Holland. Head of the jury was Ino Alberga, the IMA president.





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[M-1 Challenge]

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Lucha Canaries demonstration



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[M-1 Challenge]

FINLAND VS USA



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Niko Puhakka 69.9 kg vs David Martinez 69.9 kg

Referee: Daisuke Noguchi

The fight took place mainly on the ground and Puhakka controled it all the time.

After 3.47 in the first round he made a Hammerlock which made Martinez tapout.



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Janne Tulirinta 75.9 kg vs Roy Mc Donald 75.9 kg

Referee: Daisuke Noguchi

At the weigh in the previous day Mc Donald tipped the scale at 77 kg, which made him 1 kg overweight, so he had to get rid of that. The Spanish sun however made it quite easy to sweat it out.

After a very attractive fight that lasted 4.36 minutes Janne Tulirenta won with a triangle lock.



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[M-1 Challenge]

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Lucio Linhares 83.8 kg vs Moises Gabin 83.9 kg

Referee: Marco Broersen

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt Linhares who entered his fight in Russia a few weeks before with an injury that prefented him from showing his skills ruled the fight this time. He controlled it straight from the beginning, most of the time in backmount with feet hooked in, in which position he tried to punch the American out, he did not succed in doing so, but after 4.39 minutes in the first round he decided to finish it with an armbar.



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[M-1 Challenge]

Toni Valtonen 92.8 kg vs Rodney Wallace 92.6 kg

Referee: Marco Broersen

Wallace who had a boxing background and some highschool wrestling was fighting his second MMA bout, but was in charge in the first as well as in the second round and won by unanimous decision.



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[M-1 Challenge]

Jarno Nurminen 109.2 kg vs Mike Ottman 104.5 kg

Referee: Marco Broersen

Jarno Nurminen winner after 1minute 15 seconds by rear naked choke. After the fight Ottman had to visit the doctor because he had some problems with his throat due to the choke.

Fortunately it was nothing serious.



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Finland wins the meeting with 4 – 1

[M-1 Challenge]

Superfight:



[b]Daniel Estevez 86.4 kg vs Rayco Kakin 86.4 kg[b]

Referee : Daisuke Noguchi

Both are spanish, but Kakin is a native from Tenerife, a neighbouring island of Gran Canaria and Estevez is from Barcelona on the Spanish mainland, so it was not surprising that the home crowd was heavily in the favor of Kakin.

He was clearly the more confident fighter and proved it by finishing the fight after 1 minute 10 seconds in the firts round with what looked like an agressive ankle lock from our side of the ring.



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[M-1 Challenge]

PAUSE



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SPAIN VS HOLLAND



This was the first time ever that there were offial MMA fights in Spain and that put a tremendous pressure to win on the Spanish team.



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Carlos Valeri 69.8 kg vs Bogdan Christea 69.9 kg

Referee. Daisuke Noguchi

Valeri started the offence and was not only a strong grappler, but he proved to be a skilful boxer too because after 1.22 minute the docter had to check if Bogdan could continue because he had a nasty cut above his left eye. The fight could continue and Cristea who was hurt and damaged showed his class by choking Valeri out with a devastating guillotine choke after 1.59 in the first round.



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Juan Manuel Suarez 75.9 kg vs Romano de Los Reyes 74.7 kg

Referee: Daisuke Noguchi

After 4.17 in the first round Romano had to tap out at a straight armbar.



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Jonathan Leon 81.2 kg vs Jason Jones 83 kg

Referee: Daisuke Noguchi

The fight was very very close, but after 3 minutes and 20 second both fighters fell out the ring. Leon tried to hold on Jones and that prevent Jason from hurting himself badly.When the fight started again both were very agressive but it was Jones who was in the defense of an almost succesful armlock when the bell sounded at the end of the 1th round.

The second round was quite even with Jones a bit more on the upperhand and showing better endurance, but in the end the judges were unanimous in their decision that the near submission at the end of round one was the decesive factor to appoint Leon as the winner.



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[M-1 Challenge]

Daniel Tabera 92.7 kg vs Kamil Uygun 86.9 kg.

Referee: Marco Broersen

Taberas controlled the entire first round but could not finish it before the time was up.

After 1.58 in the second round Taberas started to G&P and referee Marco Broersen jumped between them and stopped the fight.

Winner by TKO punches after 1.58 in the second round Daniel Taberas.



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[M-1 Challenge]

Carmelo Molina 109.3 kg vs Jesse Gibbs 120 kg

Referee: Marco Broersen

A very relaxed looking Gibbs started with a strong sidekick that almost lifted Molina and made him stagger backward. Molina wanted to bring the fight to the ground, but that was a serious mistake because that’s where Gibbs feels himself like a fish in the water.

After 3.30 in the first round Gibbs applied a reverse kimura (figure 4 armlock) which made Molina tap out.

Unfortunaly for the Dutch, his victory was not enough to win the team meeting.

Spain won with 3 -2 .



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NEXT M-1 CHALLENGE EVENT IS ON JUNE THE 27TH IN ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA

[sNk]

We won :D ! Juanma Suarez is a hell of a fighter, 2-0-0 all by sub in M-1 Challenge, it's a lil bit sad that nobody gives a fuck about M-1 Challenge in mainstream forums

[We're Back]

The Return of Jerry Millen! Whats he doing with M-1?

[aubtin]

Nice pics, looks like a great event.

[( o Y o )]

the pix do look like they are from a great show. Wish I could watch it live.

[Jarzi]

Finns will take this, both Korea and USA conquered 4-1 :)

[sNk]

Finns are going to smash everyone imo