Cemented as a veteran M-1 fighter, Alexei Nazarov is making a return trip inside the confines of the five-rope ring on Saturday March 5th as he faces Legion Fight Team prospect Ramazan Abdulzhalilov in welterweight battle on the M-1 Challenge XXIII undercard. Seeming to have kicked a recent three-fight skid and re-inventing himself as the warrior he once was, Nazarov has won back-to-back tilts outside of Europe’s largest MMA promotion and is ready to return to the big stage.
Calling the Red Devil Sports Club his home, Nazarov is a developing Russian fighter with a promising career still ahead. After a disappointing loss to Alexei Belyaev this past October, this crafty Russian has taken the sound advice after fighting as a middleweight with mixed results and headed to the welterweight division with a respectable 11-4 record.
His last two outings have returned him to his winning ways with decision victories over Frenchman, Christoph Dafrevilya and Saihan Domaeva; as the hometown favourite at the MFT – Mix Fight Tournament in Voronezh, Oblast, Nazarov’s definitive performance has him wielding some much needed confidence.
Better suited as welterweight by North American standards, Nazarov is proving that he can stand with competition. With a tight, sound defence on the feet, this talented prospect prefers to keep his bouts standing in order to exercise his strengths and deliver heavy precision striking and stinging leg kicks. His teammates at the Red Devil Sports Club have been focussed on helping him develop a much stronger ground game, working Nazarov through submission and ground sessions in order to elevate his proficiency and give him an added boost to his on-canvass arsenal, an area where he has been known to leave himself exposed to unnecessary punishment.
Alexei Nazarov is regaining the momentum he had built and has his hands full with Ramazan Abdulzhalilov; should he come out the victor, he’ll be anxiously looking to clamour up the contender’s ladder and set his sites on the division’s current top-dog, Shamil Zavurov, who defends his M-1 Challenge belt for the first time later that night against tough, iron-willed American, Tom ‘Da Tank’ Gallicchio.
Fans can catch all the action from inside 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.
