ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (January 20, 2016) – M-1 Global President Vadim Finkelchtein recently announced the relaunching of its popular series, M-1 Grand Prix Tournament.
“We’ve been preparing this a long time and now we’re happy to officially announce our 2016 M-1 Grand Prix Tournament,” Finkelchtein said. “This has been a very popular format and fans are always excited about it. This time we will feature a 4-man tournament, rather than the usual 8-man pairings, because the 4-man version is faster and more entertaining. We don’t want to bore people with long expectation periods and lessen the risk of occasional injuries and fighter changes in the tournament.”
The first M-1 Grand Prix match of 2016 is set in the middleweight division as three-time Bellator champion Alexander “Storm” Shlemenko (51-9-0, M-1: 2-0-0) takes on former M-1 Challenge middleweight and light heavyweight titlist Vyacheslav Vasilevsky (27-3-0, M-1: 10-1-0)at M-1 Challenge 64, February 19 at Olympic Stadium in Moscow.
“Well, we were choosing between several offers from different promotions,” explained Shlemenoko’s manager Alexey Zhernakov. “In the end, we came to the conclusion that M-1 Grand Prix participation is the most interesting option for us at the moment. Alexander is still under Bellator’s exclusive contract. Therefore, we had to negotiate with Bellator, which kindly allowed us to sign with M-1 Global. We expect Alexander Shlemenko to take part in major M-1 Challenge events as they are always organized at a high level and broadly covered by the media.”
M-1 Challenge 64 will be streamed live from Moscow in high definition on www.M1Global.TV. Viewers will be able to watch the preliminary fights and main card by logging on to register at www.M1Global.TV. Fans may watch all of the action on their computers, as well as on Android and Apple smart phones and tablets.
USA MEDIA CONTACT:
Bob Trieger, Full Court PRESS, 978.590.0470, bobtfcp@hotmail.com, @FightPublicist
ABOUT M-1 GLOBAL: Founded in 1997, M-1 Global has established itself in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) as the premier entity for discovering and developing the world’s next-generation of superstar fighters. With its office in St Petersburg, Russia, the M-1 brand has staged more than 170 events worldwide, including M-1 Selection, M-1 Challenge, M-1 Global and M-1 Global HWGP events, in addition to co-promoting Strikeforce events and M-1 Global on the U.S. network, Showtime. Captivating live, television and broadband audiences with its superior production values and match-ups, M-1 Global events have featured some of the sport’s top names, including legendary heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko, Andrei Arlovski, Gegard Mousasi, Alistair Overeem, Keith Jardine, Ben Rothwell, Melvin Manhoef, Sergei Kharitonov, Aleksander Emelianenko, Roman Zentsov, Yushin Okami, Mike Pyle, Denis Kang, Martin Kampmann, Amar Suloev, Chalid Arrab and Stephan Struve. 2015 was another sensational year of world-class competition with a full calendar of Challenge events fueled by a talent-rich contention system ranking M-1 Global Champions among the greatest fighters in the sport.
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