Worldwide MMA Preview – M-1, Bellator, Fight UK, ONE FC, XFC, Shooto

This weekend includes action from Russia, California and Brazil in a busy period for MMA.

M-1 Challenge 63 will take place in St. Petersburg, Russia and the main event will feature a light heavyweight title fight between Stephan Puetz and Victor Nemkov. Puetz won the title from Nemkov in a split decision last year and he defended it twice in 2014. Puetz then took on M-1 heavyweight champion Marcin Tybura in a non-title fight and he was able to extend his good runand bring his record to 13-1. The Puetz defeat is Nemkov’s only loss since 2011 and he is currently on a three fight winning streak beating Maro Perak in his last outing.

The co-main event will see Ramazan Emeev defend his middleweight crown against Luigi Fioravanti. Emeev regained the title with a first round choke against Vyacheslav Vasilevsky in April in a rematch of their 2014 battle where Vasilevsky stopped Emeev in the fourth round. American Top Team’s Fioravanti had a three year career beginning in 2006 and in the past few years he has competed multiple times in Russia. He beat Sergey Kovalev in his last fight at M-1 to get this opportunity.

Bellator 147 on Friday night will take place in Scott Coker’s old haunt of San Jose, California. The main event is a lightweight fight with Josh Thomson and Pablo Villaseca. Thomson is a veteran who made his UFC debut in 2003 but he really made his name in Strikeforce with some great fights against Gilbert Melendez. He left the UFC after three decision losses. Thomson made his debut for Bellator at their Dynamite show earlier this year where he submitted Mike Bronzoulis. Vilaseca built up a 9-0 record in his native Chile and France before appearing on the preliminary portion of a Bellator card and being defeated by Bobby Cooper. He bounced back with a win in Argentina in September. It is a big bump going from regional South American competition to someone like Thomson and it will be interesting to see how Villaseca performs on the big stage.

The co-main event is a big fight in the Bellator featherweight division. Daniel Weichel and Georgi Karakhanyan compete for pole position in the race to fight newly minted champion Daniel Straus. Weichel went on a four fight winning streak in Bellator before falling to former champion Patricio Freire in a fight he was very close to winning before Freire staged a dramatic comeback. Karakhanyan was due to face Freire that night but a knee injury ruled him out and this is his first fight back. Karakhanyan is a former WSOF champion who beat Bubba Jenkins to set up that Freire fight and now he is injury free he will be eager to earn another crack the title.

In Irish action this weekend, SBG student Keith Coady will compete at Fight UK 12: The Reawakening in Leicester, England. Coady competed in Battlezone and Cage Contender in the past and he lost a decision to Andy Young in Clan Wars last year. Coady took on Arnaud Dos Santos at BAMMA 22 in September and took a quick victory. Coady will take on Jack Young who has a 3-1 record with all of his wins coming via submission.

One FC have a card on Saturday from Phnom Penh, Cambodia, as usual for their events in new markets such as this it is not as deep as some of their cards. The card is mainly composed of inexperienced local fighters but some decent One talent occupies the top of the card. The main event is a lightweight clash between the undefeated Lowen Tynanes and Russia’s Rasul Yakhyaev. Tynanes is a training partner of Max Holloway and has accumulated a 7-0 record so far in his career. This will be his third fight for One and he beat Kazakhstan’s Kuat Khamitov in his last fight. Yakhyaev has built up a 9-2 record competing mainly in Russia in promotions such as ACB and Akhmat Fight Show.

There is a lot of action in Brazil this Saturday. In Sao Paulo at XFC International 13 Nova Unaio’s Alberto Uda will take on Thiago Perpetuo at lightweight. Uda has an 8-0 record with seven finishes. He has a win over Richardson Moreira of TUF Brazil and he stopped the Belarussian Boris Miroshnichenko in his last fight. Perpetuo is also a veteran of TUF Brazil, he went 1-2 in the UFC most recently losing to Kenny Robertson.

Rio de Janeiro will host Shooto Brazil 60 headlined by a lightweight title fight between Ronys Torres and Wallace Lopes. Torres had a short stint in the UFC but he went 0-2 before being released. He has only one defeat in 16 fights since then which has seen him crowned as champion of Shooto Brazil’s lightweight division with a split decision defeat to Brian Cobb at WSOF being the only blemish. Lopes is far more inexperienced at 5-3. In his Shooto Brazil debut in October he stopped Giovani Diniz with strikes.