Sau Paulo, Brazil – After losing to Team USA West by a 3-2 margin during the season opener of the 2009 “M-1 Challenge Presented by Affliction,” losing at home in their second head-to-head series was not an option for Team Brazil.
However, matched up with the 2008 defending M-1 Challenge Cup Champions Team Imperial, Brazil felt the need to change four of its five fighters heading into Saturday’s “Fourth Edition” of the 2009 M-1 Challenge from the Ginasio Esporte Club Sirio in Sau Paulo, Brazil.
Led by former IFL superfight veteran Eduardo Pamplona, the team’s lone holdover from the opener, Brazil swept Imperial by a score of 5-0. Pamplona earned “Fight of the Night” honors after improving his record to 11-2 following his majority decision victory over BodogFIGHT veteran Erik Oganov (9-10).
Prior to Pamplona’s fight contested in the M-1 Challenge welterweight division, Brazilian prospect Hacran Dias preserved his perfect record (11-0-1) after submitting Amirkhan Mazikhov (1-1), the first-ever graduate of the M-1 Selection fight series.
The M-1 Selection was created with the intent to established qualifiers for the 2010 M-1 Challenge. However, Mazikhov received the promotion to the M-1 Challenge sooner than anticipated after an injury replacement was needed for Mikhail Malyutin.
With big shoes to fill, Mazikhov held tough in the early going before Dias took control of the fight by submitting Mazikhov with a rear naked choke at 3:58 of round 1.
The Brazilians clinched the best-of-five series to move to 1-1 on the season after middleweight Leandro “Batata” Silva (14-5) was victorious over Dmitry Samoilov (7-4-1).
Down 3-0, the Imperial Team needed to try and salvage the final two fights in order to keep their playoff hopes alive in the all-important individual victories tie-breaking category. Mikhail Zayats (8-3), one of the top fighters during the 2008 M-1 Challenge, was primed and positioned to bounce back from his shocking season opening loss in February to South Korea’s Jae Young Kim.
Once again this was not Zayats’ night, as Machado won a three-round unanimous decision, marking the first-time in the Russian light heavyweight’s career that he has suffered consecutive losses.
Heavyweights Joaquim Ferreria (Brazil) and Maksim Grishin (Imperial) were the last two fighters to take the stage with Ferreira (8-2) allowing Brazil to complete the 5-0 sweep over Imperial after submitting Grishin, another graduate of the M-1 Selection, with a North-South choke at 3:57 of round 1.
With the 5-0 victory, Brazil took sole possession of second place in Group B. With a 1-1 challenge record and an individual record of 7-3, a second Brazil victory coupled with a loss for Team USA West could put Brazil in a position to qualify for a post-season berth.
