M-1 Challenge 44 - Fight Card Updates

[keithlewis]

Kenny Garner to defend heavyweight title against Damian Grabowski at M-1 Challenge 44


On November 22 Saint Petersburg will host one of the major MMA events in Europe. Spartacus sports arena will be the stage for the heavyweight battle with the M-1 title on the line. Damian Grabowski (Fightspirit) will try to conquer the belt in a fight against M-1 heavyweight kingpin Kenny Garner (ATT).

Polish heavyweight (18-1) has been a staple in heavyweight ranking for years. Silver medalist in World BJJ Championship, European BJJ champion, UCFC champion, Grabowski’s name is in the list of the best top-15 heavyweights of the world. Out of 19 professional career performances he was victorious in all but one of them. The only defeat came from hands of the forever undefeated former Bellator champion Cole Konrad who concluded his MMA career soon thereafter. Having stumbled once – be it by decision – Polish slugger has no intentions of repeating it ever again. His nickname “Polish Pitbull” speaks for itself. No one was able to escape his lethal clutch. Worth being noted that only 4 of his bouts went to the judges. The rest was won by knockout (6) or submission (9).

Damian debuted in M-1 Global on the 23-rd of May when at M-1 Challenge 39 overcame a difficult obstacle in Tadas Rimkevicius. The gigantic “Lithuanian Bear” proved to be a hard nut to crack in the first round but persistent Pole was not going to give up. In the second round it was the pitbull who finished the bear with strikes.

Now Grabowski plans to increase his winning streak to 6 en route to becoming the new M-1 heavyweight champion. But on his way will be non other than Deuce (12-4). The M-1 champion conquered the belt back in 2011 in Phoenix, Arizona making Maxim Grishin submit to punches.

Readiness to trade punches with anyone, endless gas tank and high-quality boxing helped Kenny to become one of the most recognizable and popular fighters competing under M-1 banner. Proving haters wrong time after time this ATT standout destroyed Guram Gugenishvili twice in a rematch and knocked out currently the best Russian heavyweight in Magomed Malikov.

However in last fight Deuce suffered the first defeat in over 3 years coming just a bit short against Latvian-Russian slugger Konstanin Gluhov. Since both contented as part of M-1 Global heavyweight Grand Prix the belt was not on the line. This misstep ignited Kenny’s desire to get back to the winning streak by brutally dispatching the first rival on his way to reclaiming the status of the baddest heavyweight in M-1 Global.

Expect fireworks come November 22 as the two share 15 knockouts in their 30 winning fights combined. With only 5 of their victorious fights having gone the distance you better don’t blink as any shot can decide the fate of M-1 belt.