Creeping under the radar of the entire North American continent, Russian welterweight fighter, Arsen Temirkhanov has amassed a 17-1 record since making his first professional appearance in October 2002. He’s quiet, stealth and has mopped the mat with virtually every opponent he’s faced. In only his second outing under the M-1 Global banner and part of the M-1 Challenge XXIII undercard, Temirkhanov will face undefeated Juan Manuel Suarez on Saturday March 5th.
The 33-year-old who hails from Ekaterinburg, Russia is a two-time European combat sambo champion and a two-time Russian Army hand-to-hand combat champion; as a Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt and combat sambo specialist, Temirkhanov is a monster who has been leaving a trail of destruction in his path
Before participating in his opening round fight of the 2010 M-1 Selection Eastern European tournament, Temirkhanov took part in the Moscow World Combat Sambo Cup and simply destroyed all who got in his way; after his convincingly dominating performance, he described the competition as a ‘a warm-up before the storm’. Showing up to the Selections tournament in phenomenal shape and ready to face world karate champion, Vladimir Opanesenko, Temirkhanov took less than two rounds to capture a submission victory and secure his place in the semi-finals.
Withdrawing from the tournament for personal circumstances outside his control, Temirkhanov is ready to return to action and his first outing of 2011 lands him a bout on a much larger world stage. With M-1 Challenge streaming live to a worldwide audience, this stealth, unstoppable Russian fighter can quickly become a forum topic of North American fans who have likely never heard of him before. If he can hand Suarez his first loss and string together a run of victories, Temirkhanov can quickly find himself climbing into contention and on a trip across the Atlantic to fight on one M-1 Global’s US-based events. We’ll wait and see.
Fans can catch Temirkhanov battle Suarez from the Crocus City arena in Moscow, Russia on Saturday, March 5th by tuning in to the official live stream on M-1 Global website, www.M-1Global.com at 11:00am EST / 8:00am PST.
