Aleksander Emelianenko and Mike Whitehead to headline upcoming M-1 Challenge shows
October 14, 2008 by Sam Caplan
M-1 is scheduled to hold “M-1 Challenge 9” at the Ice Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia on Nov. 21, according to the promotion’s official website, M1Mixfight.com. The event will feature a double-header with Team Korea taking on the Russian Red Devil team and also the Russian Legion team squaring off with Team Holland.
The event is also expected to feature two superfights with Aleksander Emelianenko, the younger brother of WAMMA heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko, set to take on Korean prospect Sang Soo Lee.
Emelianenko is 13-3 in his MMA career with notable wins over Assuerio Silva, Pawel Nastula, Sergei Kharitonov, and James Thompson. He last competed in April during an M-1 Challenge event in St. Petersburg.
Lee is 9-4 and is coming off an impressive victory at “M-1 Challenge 7,” where he submitted Roman Zentsov with a triangle choke at 4:33 of round 1. The victory avenged a previous loss to Zentsov stemming from their first meeting during an M-1 and MFC co-promotion in 2007.
M-1 will also be making its debut on U.S. soil on Oct. 29 in Kansas City, Mo. Former IFL and UFC veteran Mike Whitehead is scheduled to headline the event in a Superfight. Whitehead was a three-time All-American wrestler while competing for the University of Missouri and appeared on the second season of Spike TV’s hit reality show, The Ultimate Fighter.
Whitehead is 22-6 in a professional MMA career that began in 2001 and holds notable victories over Ruben Villareal, Mark Kerr, Krzysztof Soszynski, and Vernon White. The Xtreme Couture product last competed during Affliction’s inaugural show on July 19, where he suffered a unanimous decision defeat to Renato “Babalu” Sobral.
It’s always good to see Aleksander in action no matter who he’s fighting. Whitehead on the other hand makes me want to go take a nap.
So I hope this means that all of Aleks’ bullshit is behind him, cuz we need more Aleks in the MMA scene…Mike Whitehead not so much!
Doesn’t Aleks have hep C or something? Was that an accurate story this summer?
I don’t think anything is confirmed with the hep rumor but it looks like he can’t get licensed to fight in the US for something. Haven’t all of his recent fights been in Canada or Russia?
interesting. Whitehead was at Night Of Combat II this weekend.
should be a good fight if it happens!
awesome it’s about time we get to see Aleks back in action.
Whitehead only was at Night of Combat II because he trains at Xtreme Couture he was not fighting that night.