M-1 Challenge is the newest program to enter the MMA TV lottery and is the brain child of Vadim Finkelstein. In the US, it’ll be brought on a weekly basis by the good folks over at HDNet, who have to be considered something of a necessity for the hardcore fan by now. The one hour show will, on a weekly basis, show 5 full and edited fights from the M-1 Challenge Tournament. This tournament features 10 teams from across the globe with 5 fighters per team in weight classes from 155 to heavyweight. Sounds pretty familiar, doesn’t it? There are 2 teams from Russia (Team Legion and Team Red Devil), then the US, Japan, South Korea, Finland, France, Spain, Germany, and Holland. Interesting that no UK team was chosen for the inaugural season or whatever they wish to call this. Our first episode comes to us from The Netherlands and there’s a pretty good size live crowd present. Recording date goes all the way back to March of this year.

Viewing the program, the production is nearly identical in many ways to Bodogfight. Same background voice, similar screens, even a few of the same fighters. Lots of shots of the crowd in between rounds to show off the “celebrities”, in this case, Fedor, Finklestein, Peter Aerts, and Remy Bonjasky. The format of the tournament isn’t the only thing like the IFL either. Given the one hour time, fights are often chopped to show only round 2. The rule set during is exactly like the IFL, with the exception of the rounds. Here we’ve got 2 five minute rounds and a third round as overtime should the fight end in a draw. Announcing the fights wil be Jimmy Smith and Sean Wheelock.

1) BENDY CASAMIR vs. MIKHAIL MALUTIN: Malutin is listed as 25-6. He’s shown on Sherdog as, well, not being anywhere near that. Casamir has a pretty solid record though and with his appearances in Shooto and various British cage shows, he may look familiar to some of the hardcore fans as well. This is a lightweight fight, BTW.

Both men open with some pretty wild striking and Casamir goes for the takedown after that dies down. He passes to side control and Malutin tries to scramble to his feet. Casamir tries to lock up a guillotine, but with Malutin only in half guard, he just can’t finish. Casamir transitions to a knee bar attempt, but it is ruled too close to the ropes, and the fight is stopped and restarted in the center. Casamir and Malutin do some posturing and then Casamir is back on the attack, looking for another kneebar and then heel hooks. Malutin ends up on top at the end of the round, but Casamir was the man on offense.

Second round sees Casamir not even bothering with the bad striking and he goes straight to the ground into the full guard of Malutin. Malutin tries to sweep him, but fails and ends up giving his back. Malutin spins out of that into a not much better situation of a nice tight guillotine, but he is able to prevent getting submitted. Another restart in center and Malutin is doing a great job laying in half guard. He stands up momentarily and then jumps back into Casamir’s guard with a punch. Casamir again goes for leglocks and Malutin rolls to defend the kneebar. At the end of the round, Malutin gives up the back and Casamir is riding him. Doesn’t matter. I had it scored 19-19, but the refs chose to go with Casamir for his attempts to win over Malutin’s positioning and he won a split decision.

2) ERIK OGANOV vs. FAROUK LAKEBIR: These are welters of indeterminate actual weight. Oganov is a Bodog vet.

We join this in round 2. Lakebir and Oganov clinch at the start and push each other around into a corner with only some minor knees to the outsides of the legs from Lakebir. Lakebir nails a trip takedown and is on top in half guard. He easily transitions to half guard and mount and that’s how the rest of the fight goes. Oganov constantly gave up dominant positions and Lakebir couldn’t finish him. Lakebir’s best chances came with a pair of side chokes, but he would give those up and return to mount. Lakebir wins by unanimous decision.

3) KARL AMOUSSOU vs. DMITRY SAMOLIOV:Samoliov is another Bodog vet who was in a pretty exciting fight back in Season 2. Amoussou is someone no one has ever really heard of, but he wants to be known as “Psycho”.

Amoussou rushes him and gets hip tossed by Samoliov for his efforts. It occurs straight into a corner of the ring, and the fight is stopped and restarted in the center. There’s some disagreement about placement of Amoussou’s arm, but that’s rendered null and void soon after the fight starts. Samoliov scrambles to his feet and as he does so, Amoussou throws a kick reminiscent of Edwards/Thomson and Samoliov is completely out cold. Huge, huge KO. Astoundingly, France’s team is ahead of the Red Devil team 3-0 and has already won this match of nations.

4) KRISTOFF DAFFORVILLE vs. MIKHAIL ZAYATS: This is at light heavyweight, I think. Not really explained. I’ve also never heard of either of the fighters here.

We start at round 2. Zayats takes down Dafforville with the double, and using context clues from the announcers, it is clear that this is not unexpected. Dafforville tries to scramble up and gets guillotined/DDTed. He survives the submission attempt and throws a few fairly light shots before choosing to stand up again. It doesn’t stay standing long before Zayats takes him down again, same way as before. Zayats is able to cut Dafforville with some punches from inside his guard, and that is enough to break them up and have the doctor look at it. He’s okay to go and the rest of the round has Zayats riding it out on the ground on top of Dafforville. Not exciting by any means. Zayats was effective enough to win and get Russia its first W of the show.

5) MARTIN SZOLTYSIK vs. KIRIL SIDELNIKOV:Szoltysik is originally from Poland, but moved to France to further his career. He’s 264 lbs of solid muscle, and he’s got the phrase “White Power” tattooed across his shoulder blades. That name doesn’t look too Germanic to me. Sidelnikov is 1-1, but he’s also only 19 and at 229, he’s not necessarily tiny.

The self hating Slav decides at the start of the bout to not touch gloves and instead rush Sidelnikov as he offers his hand with a giant right hand. He misses. Szoltysik is powerful, I’m sure, but he has horrible technique. Meanwhile, Sidelnikov is channelling Fedor well. Very similar stance, very similar body type. He does choose to not try and take down the monstrous Polak, and instead plays counter puncher to the wild monster in front of him. The strategy works: Szoltysik’s energy and size burn him out halfway through the round (evident by his wide open mouth and low hands), while the Russian fighter’s movement means he’s basically untouched. Sidelnikov throws a straight right hand to Szoltysik’s head and connects easily against his hulking foe, dropping him straight back. He goes to follow up and pound him into unconsciousness, but the referee intervenes. It was not a good night for the Aryan race, but Sidelnikov’s age makes him interesting to see in the future.

Next week: Holland and Germany fight for supremacy. Expect standup. Lots of standup.