European Throwdown: News and Notes from Iberia to Siberia
Tim Leidecker Feb 19, 2007
This edition of Sherdog.com's bi-weekly column on the European
fight scene looks ahead to next month, which will be a hot one
across Europe. We will give you a preview of events happening in
Russia, Finland and Lithuania, and round things up with a humorous
mailbag.
bodogFIGHT Episode 1 recap
The first episode of bodogFIGHT's second season from St.
Petersburg, Russia featured two interesting lightweight battles. In
classic striker versus grappler confrontations Kultar Gill (Pictures) from India took on Brazilian
Rodrigo Damm, while UFC
and PRIDE veteran Yves
Edwards (Pictures) faced off with American Top
Team's Mike Brown.
In the first fight the six-foot Gill had a huge size and reach advantage against the four inch smaller Damm. The man nicknamed "The Black Mamba" impressively put that into effect during the stand-up portions of the fight but still had to resort to grabbing the ropes when the short and stocky Brazilian tried to take him down.
Edwards-Brown was a fight which on paper could have easily made it to a UFC pay-per-view. In reality it proved to be a highly technical and tactical battle that one would rather expect on a Shooto card.
The first round went as planned for both men: Brown clinched and wrestled while Edwards got the better of the stand-up exchanges. The second round, however, proved how far Brown, a former 145-pound standout, has come as far as his boxing game.
He repeatedly scored with good shots on the feet. Edwards came to life late in the round with a nice combination of punches and kicks, but Brown went on to control the third and final round en route to a unanimous decision. The result, while not an upset in classic terms, is at least a mild surprise.
Damm and Brown will now square off on the bodogFIGHT "Clash of the Nations" pay-per-view, which takes place at the traditional "Jubileiny" hall in St. Petersburg on April 14.
Here is the schedule for the weeks ahead:
Episode 2 – Welterweights – Feb. 20
Jorge Masvidal (9-2-0) vs. Steve Berger (Pictures) (17-15-2)
Dmitry Samiolov (2-0-0) vs. Tyler Jackson (Pictures) (7-3-0)
Episode 3 – Heavyweights – Feb. 27
Roman Zentsov (Pictures) (14-10-0) vs. Kristof Midoux (Pictures) (5-6-0)
Cain Velasquez (Pictures) (1-0-0) vs. Jeremiah Constant (4-0-0)
Red Devils want to stay on top
M-1, the partner of bodogFIGHT in Russia, also wants to get the ball rolling with its first event in 2007. The March 3 show has the Red Devil team from the North going up against challengers from Western cities Kaliningrad and Moscow.
Speaking of the Red Devils: The teammates of PRIDE heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures) and his younger but bigger brother Aleksander want to keep the momentum they gained in the K-1 "Russia vs. Korea" event, which took place in Seoul earlier this year.
On the show the Russian fighters outclassed their Korean opposition with 10-2. Particularly impressive was 18-year-old Kiril Sidelnikov, who is trained by none other than Fedor himself. The Sambo fighter looked just as light-footed as his master and even the boxing style resembled the "Russian Emperor.” In the end he took out his opponent Dong Woo Shin with a crashing head kick after only 19 seconds.
While Sidelnikov has not been confirmed for the March 3 show yet, five other fights have already been announced:
Lightweight Division
Mikhail Malutin (Red Devil Sport Club) vs. Sadig Kirimov (Tiburon)
Sergei Betsky (Red Devil Sport Club) vs. Yunus Evmoev (Tiburon)
Middleweight Division
Said Khalilov (Russfighters) vs. Dmitriy Murashkin (Kaliningrad)
Light Heavyweight Division
Ratmir Alirzaev (Red Devil Sport Club) vs. Alexander Tchistov (Kaliningrad)
Tamerlan Urtaev (Red Devil Sport Club) vs. Dmitriy Zabolotniy (Kaliningrad)
Also scheduled to compete:
Karen Grigoryan (Russfighters)
Baga Agaev (Russfighters)
Swiss-based Brazilian shooting for the "Moon Wolf"
Shooto announced during the halftime break of the recent "Back to our Roots" card that Rumina Sato (Pictures) would co-headline a card on March 16.
In his first fight in 13 months, the 33-year-old fan favorite will face Swiss-based Brazilian Top Team member Augusto Frota Guimaraes. A pupil of former PRIDE heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Pictures), Guimaraes has made a name for himself as a fighter as well as a promoter of the Swiss Shooto division.
He was also one of the coaches on the short-lived German TUF-clone "Martial Arts X-treme.” Most recently he submitted Dutch fighter Marc Duncan at a Shooto Holland card in April 2006.
Guimaraes seems confident that he will come out of the battle with the former Shooto Pacific Rim champion unscathed, as he has himself booked in another fight against Frenchman Emmanuel Fernandez (Pictures) only two weeks after the clash with Sato.
World Champions coming to Lithuania
On the same weekend as the above-mentioned Shooto card, several high-class fighters will come to the beautiful city of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, for the K-1 East Europe MAX tournament.
Fighting in the eight-man elimination tournament will be Jurij Boreiko from Latvia, Germany's Denis Schneidmiller, and local hero Tadas Jonkus among others. The winner will move on to be an alternate for the K-1 MAX world tournament final.
Additionally, the dominating fighter in the K-1 MAX division for the past three years, Buakaw Por.Pramuk, will compete in a super-fight against Russian champion Maksim Grechkin.
The main event will held under MMA rules, however. Kestutis Smirnovas (Pictures) is back from his HERO’S adventure to face veteran fighter Valerijus Golubovskis for the newly established Bushido Lithuania middleweight title.
Fight Festival 21 wants to light up freezing Helsinki
Fight Festival, the longest running promotion not only in Finland but the whole of Scandinavia, returns with their 21st show on March 17. With temperatures as high as -8°F during this time of the year, Finnish fight fans are desperate in need of something hot, and Fight Festival 21 could provide that with two potentially explosive fights.
Mikko Rupponen, arguably Finland's strongest MMA export and one of the top five light heavyweights in Europe, will square off against RINGS and PRIDE veteran Hirotaka Yokoi (Pictures). The Finnish wrestler had his win streak halted at five last September when he lost to Dutch Muay Thai expert Rodney Faverus due to a broken hand. He has promised to come back with a vengeance. A win over the former pro wrestler could punch his ticket to Japan.
Even more interesting from a German perspective is the battle between Germany's strongest light heavyweight, Martin Zawada, and Brazilian Lucio Linhares. Knockout machine Zawada (13 fights, 8 KOs) beat up his opposition in Dutch promotion 2 Hot 2 Handle last year, only falling short to Bulgarian bulldozer Jordan Radev in the final of 2H2H's "Road to Japan" tournament.
With UFC matchmaker Joe Silva reportedly having an eye on the 23-year-old talent from Düsseldorf, a win over the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt could see him walk the same path that Dennis Siver traveled before him.
Mailbag
"Well, you clearly don't have much of a clue about Germany if you think hot dogs aren't German. … Why do you think they're called Frankfurters? Now, don't get all technical and bring up the bun issue, because Wieners are served with a roll just about everywhere in Germany, with mustard on the side. So the presentation is a bit diff.
Maybe you should have gone with “baseball and pickup trucks” … And you’re the editor of a German MMA site? Dude … Don’t fret, I’d say a good percentage of American MMA fans think a Wienerschnitzel is a hot dog anyway!" – Edward Pollard
Ed, my man, wussup? Now a Yankee wants to give a Kraut a lesson on Würstchen? Come on! Even though the hot dog was indeed invented in the 17th century by a German butcher named Johann Georg Hehner, you will be hard pressed to find one at a German "Schnellimbiss" (takeaway) today.
Take Konnopke's Imbiss for example: It is one of the oldest and most popular snack bars in Berlin, in fact it was already in place when Franklin D. Roosevelt was president of the United States!
If you ever come to the German capital, you should pay them a visit as they have got everything on their menu a hungry man looking for a quick fix could wish for: Currywurst (a curried, grilled sausage), Bockwurst mit Nudelsalat (a Frankfurter with pasta salad) and even a Schnitzel with French fries. But: No hot dogs!
For more mixed martial arts news coverage in German language log on to Ground & Pound at www.groundandpound.de
bodogFIGHT Episode 1 recap
Advertisement
In the first fight the six-foot Gill had a huge size and reach advantage against the four inch smaller Damm. The man nicknamed "The Black Mamba" impressively put that into effect during the stand-up portions of the fight but still had to resort to grabbing the ropes when the short and stocky Brazilian tried to take him down.
Frustrated with Gill's antics, Damm decided to throw the Indian
Muay Thai specialist over the top rope in a way that would have
even made the Undertaker proud. The second move that caused a great
stir in the crowd was when Damm climbed the huge Indian to sink in
the fight-winning rear-naked choke at 2:11 of the second round.
Edwards-Brown was a fight which on paper could have easily made it to a UFC pay-per-view. In reality it proved to be a highly technical and tactical battle that one would rather expect on a Shooto card.
The first round went as planned for both men: Brown clinched and wrestled while Edwards got the better of the stand-up exchanges. The second round, however, proved how far Brown, a former 145-pound standout, has come as far as his boxing game.
He repeatedly scored with good shots on the feet. Edwards came to life late in the round with a nice combination of punches and kicks, but Brown went on to control the third and final round en route to a unanimous decision. The result, while not an upset in classic terms, is at least a mild surprise.
Damm and Brown will now square off on the bodogFIGHT "Clash of the Nations" pay-per-view, which takes place at the traditional "Jubileiny" hall in St. Petersburg on April 14.
Here is the schedule for the weeks ahead:
Episode 2 – Welterweights – Feb. 20
Jorge Masvidal (9-2-0) vs. Steve Berger (Pictures) (17-15-2)
Dmitry Samiolov (2-0-0) vs. Tyler Jackson (Pictures) (7-3-0)
Episode 3 – Heavyweights – Feb. 27
Roman Zentsov (Pictures) (14-10-0) vs. Kristof Midoux (Pictures) (5-6-0)
Cain Velasquez (Pictures) (1-0-0) vs. Jeremiah Constant (4-0-0)
Red Devils want to stay on top
M-1, the partner of bodogFIGHT in Russia, also wants to get the ball rolling with its first event in 2007. The March 3 show has the Red Devil team from the North going up against challengers from Western cities Kaliningrad and Moscow.
Speaking of the Red Devils: The teammates of PRIDE heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures) and his younger but bigger brother Aleksander want to keep the momentum they gained in the K-1 "Russia vs. Korea" event, which took place in Seoul earlier this year.
On the show the Russian fighters outclassed their Korean opposition with 10-2. Particularly impressive was 18-year-old Kiril Sidelnikov, who is trained by none other than Fedor himself. The Sambo fighter looked just as light-footed as his master and even the boxing style resembled the "Russian Emperor.” In the end he took out his opponent Dong Woo Shin with a crashing head kick after only 19 seconds.
While Sidelnikov has not been confirmed for the March 3 show yet, five other fights have already been announced:
Lightweight Division
Mikhail Malutin (Red Devil Sport Club) vs. Sadig Kirimov (Tiburon)
Sergei Betsky (Red Devil Sport Club) vs. Yunus Evmoev (Tiburon)
Middleweight Division
Said Khalilov (Russfighters) vs. Dmitriy Murashkin (Kaliningrad)
Light Heavyweight Division
Ratmir Alirzaev (Red Devil Sport Club) vs. Alexander Tchistov (Kaliningrad)
Tamerlan Urtaev (Red Devil Sport Club) vs. Dmitriy Zabolotniy (Kaliningrad)
Also scheduled to compete:
Karen Grigoryan (Russfighters)
Baga Agaev (Russfighters)
Swiss-based Brazilian shooting for the "Moon Wolf"
Shooto announced during the halftime break of the recent "Back to our Roots" card that Rumina Sato (Pictures) would co-headline a card on March 16.
In his first fight in 13 months, the 33-year-old fan favorite will face Swiss-based Brazilian Top Team member Augusto Frota Guimaraes. A pupil of former PRIDE heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Pictures), Guimaraes has made a name for himself as a fighter as well as a promoter of the Swiss Shooto division.
He was also one of the coaches on the short-lived German TUF-clone "Martial Arts X-treme.” Most recently he submitted Dutch fighter Marc Duncan at a Shooto Holland card in April 2006.
Guimaraes seems confident that he will come out of the battle with the former Shooto Pacific Rim champion unscathed, as he has himself booked in another fight against Frenchman Emmanuel Fernandez (Pictures) only two weeks after the clash with Sato.
World Champions coming to Lithuania
On the same weekend as the above-mentioned Shooto card, several high-class fighters will come to the beautiful city of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, for the K-1 East Europe MAX tournament.
Fighting in the eight-man elimination tournament will be Jurij Boreiko from Latvia, Germany's Denis Schneidmiller, and local hero Tadas Jonkus among others. The winner will move on to be an alternate for the K-1 MAX world tournament final.
Additionally, the dominating fighter in the K-1 MAX division for the past three years, Buakaw Por.Pramuk, will compete in a super-fight against Russian champion Maksim Grechkin.
The main event will held under MMA rules, however. Kestutis Smirnovas (Pictures) is back from his HERO’S adventure to face veteran fighter Valerijus Golubovskis for the newly established Bushido Lithuania middleweight title.
Fight Festival 21 wants to light up freezing Helsinki
Fight Festival, the longest running promotion not only in Finland but the whole of Scandinavia, returns with their 21st show on March 17. With temperatures as high as -8°F during this time of the year, Finnish fight fans are desperate in need of something hot, and Fight Festival 21 could provide that with two potentially explosive fights.
Mikko Rupponen, arguably Finland's strongest MMA export and one of the top five light heavyweights in Europe, will square off against RINGS and PRIDE veteran Hirotaka Yokoi (Pictures). The Finnish wrestler had his win streak halted at five last September when he lost to Dutch Muay Thai expert Rodney Faverus due to a broken hand. He has promised to come back with a vengeance. A win over the former pro wrestler could punch his ticket to Japan.
Even more interesting from a German perspective is the battle between Germany's strongest light heavyweight, Martin Zawada, and Brazilian Lucio Linhares. Knockout machine Zawada (13 fights, 8 KOs) beat up his opposition in Dutch promotion 2 Hot 2 Handle last year, only falling short to Bulgarian bulldozer Jordan Radev in the final of 2H2H's "Road to Japan" tournament.
With UFC matchmaker Joe Silva reportedly having an eye on the 23-year-old talent from Düsseldorf, a win over the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt could see him walk the same path that Dennis Siver traveled before him.
Mailbag
"Well, you clearly don't have much of a clue about Germany if you think hot dogs aren't German. … Why do you think they're called Frankfurters? Now, don't get all technical and bring up the bun issue, because Wieners are served with a roll just about everywhere in Germany, with mustard on the side. So the presentation is a bit diff.
Maybe you should have gone with “baseball and pickup trucks” … And you’re the editor of a German MMA site? Dude … Don’t fret, I’d say a good percentage of American MMA fans think a Wienerschnitzel is a hot dog anyway!" – Edward Pollard
Ed, my man, wussup? Now a Yankee wants to give a Kraut a lesson on Würstchen? Come on! Even though the hot dog was indeed invented in the 17th century by a German butcher named Johann Georg Hehner, you will be hard pressed to find one at a German "Schnellimbiss" (takeaway) today.
Take Konnopke's Imbiss for example: It is one of the oldest and most popular snack bars in Berlin, in fact it was already in place when Franklin D. Roosevelt was president of the United States!
If you ever come to the German capital, you should pay them a visit as they have got everything on their menu a hungry man looking for a quick fix could wish for: Currywurst (a curried, grilled sausage), Bockwurst mit Nudelsalat (a Frankfurter with pasta salad) and even a Schnitzel with French fries. But: No hot dogs!
For more mixed martial arts news coverage in German language log on to Ground & Pound at www.groundandpound.de
