With some good ‘ol fashioned dirty boxing and grueling ground and pound, Fioravanti was able to sink in a suffocating rear-naked-choke submission on Guseinov at the 35-second mark of the bout’s overtime round. With the judges declaring the bout a controversial draw after the scheduled 15 minutes, the former US Marine refused to let anyone other than himself decide the final outcome. “I felt good in the fight but really struggled to get situated with the time difference in Moscow. Obviously I would have liked to have finished the fight earlier but I’m still feeling great about the submission win.” The performance was a testament to Fioravanti’s conditioning and heart and is well deserving of the shared M-1 Challenge XXI Fight of the Night honor.

As the clear-cut antagonist in Guseinov’s native country, the scene resembled a throwback to Rocky IV with the crowd laying into the American fighter from the get go. But as Guseinov continued to execute questionable antics, such as delivering a definitive illegal kick to the head of his downed opponent and deliberately delaying answering the bell between rounds, the once hostile crowd was quickly in favor of Fioravanti’s unbreakable will. “It was an amazing feeling to hear the crowd start cheering for me. Having his home-town crowd take my side was a perfect answer to such a poor display of sportsmanship.” Adding to the appalling behavior, Guseinov enticed Fioravanti to touch gloves; as Fioravanti went to respond, he ended up eating a cheap-shot spinning back-kick to the midsection which immediately set the crowd singing a chorus of boo’s.

Now riding a three fight win streak, Fioravanti will look to make his return back to confines of the M-1 Global ring in 2011. “M-1 Global has treated me extremely well. The executives are amazingly cool and down to earth and really go out of their way to help their fighters. I can’t wait to get back in the ring for them. Not only is it an incredible experience fighting but the opportunity to see new places around the world is a great perk. ”

Like many of today’s talented fighters, Fioravanti is more than just a mixed martial artist, he served his country with pride and honor. Joining the Marines directly after high school, Fioravanti was part of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and began training in various martial arts such as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and kickboxing while stationed in California and Iraq.

After spending five months in Iraq, Fioravanti continued training and began his professional career in early 2004 with his successful debut against future TUF 9 competitor, Kiel Reid, via first-round submission at Obaktagon Challenge 1. Not looking to slow down after his first fight, Fioravanti put his foot on the throttle and quickly racked up an impressive string of victories and has fought such notables as Chris Leben, Jon Fitch, Luke Cummo, Dave Menne, and Diego Sanchez. It seems ‘The Italian Tank’ is steadfast in his tracks once again.

2011 includes a full slate of M-1 Challenge events held in the United States and Europe. These are the mega-event spectaculars where Champions defend their titles and contenders jockey for position. Feeding the contention system will be two Selection tournaments in 2011 with details being announced shortly.

With M-1 Challenge champions established in all five weight classes, a true contenders system will fuel events throughout 2011, driving M-1 Global’s growth as a leading brand in the US and international markets.

PHOTO CREDIT – M-1 Global

FiveOuncesOfPain.com was informed of the personnel move on Monday afternoon from a source speaking on the condition of anonymity.

With the loss, Fioravanti’s overall record fell to 14-5 with his lifetime record in the UFC reduced to a sub-.500 level (4-5). Despite having recorded a unanimous decision over Brodie Farber this past December during the promotion’s “UFC Fight for the Troops” event, Fioravanti had still dropped two of his last three bouts in the Octagon. The second loss came via a third round TKO against Diego Sanchez during the live finale for the seventh season of The Ultimate Fighter this past June.

A former Marine, Fioravanti has worked his way back to the UFC in the past. He had been dropped by the promotion following a unanimous decision loss to Forrest Petz at UFC Fight Night 10 in June of 2007 but returned soon after having won a fight outside of the organization.

Returning against Luke Cummo during the undercard of UFC 82, the American Top Team trained fighter recorded a unanimous decision victory.

In this case Amir Sadollah’s misfortune has turned into Anthony Johnson’s and Luigi Fiorvanti’s good fortune. With Sadollah once again forced to withdraw from a scheduled fight with UFC newcomer Nick Catone, the UFC has promoted a the welterweight clash between Johnson and Fioravanti to the main card of this Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 17 telecast on Spike TV.

MMAJunkie was the first to report the addition of the bout to the main card.

Johnson is coming off an impressive knockout victory over Kevin Burns at the live finale for the eighth season of The Ultimate Fighter. Johnson was able to extract a measure of revenge on Burns, who month’s earlier was awarded a very controversial victory following an illegal eye poke that went unseen by referee Steve Mazzagatti.

Fioravanti is coming off a unanimous decision victory over Brodie Farber at December’s “Fight For The Troops” special. The former Marine is 2-1 in his last three fights and has displayed a strong chin during his UFC career.

Sadollah is not the only fighter who has been forced to withdraw from a UFN 17 due to injury. Hermes Franca had been scheduled to fight Joe Lauzon during the show’s main event but suffered a torn ACL while training and has since been replaced by Jeremy Stephens. Additionally, TUF 6 veteran George Sotiropoulos and middleweight Alessio Sakara also suffered injuries and were scratched as well.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com learned of the news from Johnson’s agent, Ken Pavia, early Saturday afternoon with the story first being reported by MMAjunkie.com. Five Ounces of Pain has since confirmed with Fioravanti that he has in fact agreed to the bout as well.

Johnson’s win over Burns last month not only improved his record to 6-2, but it avenged a controversial defeat to Burns last July in which Johnson was declared the loser via TKO in spite of an illegal eye poke.

Fioravanti, a former Marine, also fought in December, defeating Brodie Farber via unanimous decision during “UFC Fight Night 16: UFC Fight for the Troops” in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The win improved Fioravanti’s overall record to 14-4 and his lifetime UFC record to 4-4.

UFN 17 will emanate from the University of South Florida’s Sun Dome in Tampa, Florida with the current card reported to be the following:

• Joe Lauzon vs. Hermes Franca
• Mac Danzig vs. Josh Neer
• Amir Sadollah vs. Nick Catone
• Cain Velasquez vs. Denis Stojnic
• Anthony Johnson vs. Luigi Fioravanti
• Jake Rosholt vs. Alessio Sakara
• Rich Clementi vs. Gleison Tibau
• Kurt Pellegrino vs. Rob Emerson
• Matt Grice vs. George Sotiropoulos

The Sanchez defeat killed positive momentum that Fioravanti had generated following impressive back-to-back victories with his most recent coming against cagey UFC vet Luke Cummo. Following the Cummo upset, Fioravanti appeared to be rising fast in the welterweight division.

The American Top Team fighter knows that coming off of a loss in the UFC can be a very dangerous thing. Fioravanti told FiveOuncesOfPain.com in an exclusive interview that he views his upcoming fight with Brodie Farber at the “UFC Fight Night 16: UFC Fight for the Troops” card on December 10th as a must win.

What more fitting card for Fioravanti to make his return on than on the first event put on by the UFC where the proceeds will go to those that have served in the military and their families? Fioravanti began serving his country when he joined the marines right out of high school and went on to play a part in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.

“I was in the infantry in the Marines and I was the anti-tank assault man,” said Fioravanti. “I had a rocket launcher that I had to carry around. I’d have to shoot if there were any tanks or fortified buildings or anything like that.

“We started in Kuwait in the middle of March and we went from Kuwait up through the middle of Iraq pretty much. We just went from town to town until we got to Baghdad. It was a pretty hectic time in my life. It was a life experience.”

Surprisingly, it was actually during his time with the marines that the heavy handed welterweight first got his introduction to training for mixed martial arts.

“In the Marines we would be watching the UFC or Pride and stuff like that and we would kind of just end up beating up on each other,” said Fioravanti. “We would do hand to hand combat and stuff.

“We would have these little sessions where we would just get in there and fight each other. Just to get used to it in case in case you had to do it in combat.”

Knowing how important the fight with Farber will likely be to his UFC career, Fioravanti has done his homework on his rangy opponent.

“I match up well with him,” said the retired Marine. “I’m the better wrestler and I might have the better ground game. Standing up I’m the shorter guy so he’ll be punching down at me. It’s going to be a lot harder for him to keep his hands up.

“In his last fight with he didn’t have his hands up when he got kicked in the head so I might have to take advantage of that.”

American Top Team is easily one of the best gyms for mixed martial arts on the planet and the benefits that come from training at such a camp will be priceless for Fioravanti when he steps in the octagon to wage battle with Farber on December 10th.

“I’m feeling really good,” said Fioravanti. “My camp’s been intense so I’ve been training really hard. I’ve been training with everybody down at American Top Team. I’ve been training a lot with Yves Edwards, Steve Guerrero, Oboyo, Jorge Santiago. I’ve been focusing a lot on my jiu-jitsu so I’ve been training with a lot of jiu-jitsu guys too.

“I’ve been focusing a lot on my ground game. I’ve been doing a lot of gi stuff. I’ve been trying to get better on the ground and just get better overall with my striking and wrestling as well. I kind of made Diego look good in that last fight. I was supposed to be the guy coming in there and beating him up on the feet but it doesn’t always work out that way.”

The Orlando native has no doubt in his mind how the fight with Farber will end and points to experience in the octagon as a key factor to the outcome.

“I’m visualizing me knocking him out on the feet, taking him down and submitting him or TKO’ing him on the ground,” he said. “I’m more experienced when it comes to fighting in the UFC and I’ve fought tougher guys.”

The powerful 170 pounder makes no bones about how important this fight will be in his fighting career. Never a big fan of losing, the significance of this match up will make his thirst for victory that much more intense.

“Every fight’s a must win fight for me,” explained Fioravanti. “I freaking hate losing, I really do, and this is definitely a must win fight for me.

“Especially to a guy that’s 0-1 in the UFC. The UFC higher ups are going to look at that and be like, ‘Why are we keeping this guy around?’ So it’s definitely a must win fight. It means a lot. I want to go out there and put on a good show for the UFC and my fans. I want to shut some of the critics up and work my way up to title contention eventually.”

There were a few people that Fioravanti wanted to thank for contributing to his mixed martial arts career.

“I want to thank Tapout, American Top Team and all of my trainers at American Top Team and all the guys that have helped me get ready for this fight,” Fioravanti said in closing.