M-1 Global announced Tuesday that its inaugural bantamweight championship will be up for grabs in one of the featured bouts of M-1 Challenge 71, which is slated for Oct. 21 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Pavel Vitruk will take on Vitali Branchuk for the title, the Russian promotion revealed.
This fight will serve as a warm-up to the already-announced light heavyweight encounter between Viktor Nemkov and Attila Vegh, which will anchor the entire event.
Nemkov is a former two-time M-1 Challenge champion at 205 pounds. In May, his four-fight winning streak was snapped when he dropped a split decision to Rashid Yusupov at M-1 Challenge 66. In doing so, he lost his title.
Vegh captured Bellator’s light heavyweight title in 2013 but lost it in his first defense to Emanuel Newton. He’s been on a skid lately, however, as the Czech native has dropped three consecutive battles. His most recent setback was a first-round knockout at the hands of Alexander Volkov at M-1 Challenge 68 in June.
M-1 Challenge 71 will stream live on M1Global.tv. Additional bouts for the event will be announced in the coming weeks.