(PRESS RELEASE) -- Thirty-three out of 34 four fighters successfully made weight early Saturday afternoon in anticipation of Sunday's M-1 Selection event set to take place in St. Petersburg, Russia.
The only fighter not to weigh-in in time for his scheduled first attempt is lightweight Akop Stepanyan of Rusfighters, who as of press time still had additional time for a second attempt to meet his contract weight of 154 lbs.
Insiders currently consider the most anticipated bouts of the evening to include a heavyweight clash between Team Sochi's Telman Sherifov and Team Perm's Rizvan Ganiyalov; Action Force's Karen Grigoryan vs. Nizniy's Novgorod's Maxim Rozhkov in a lightweight encounter; and Baga Agaev of Rusfighters vs. Team Legion's Bogfan Hmelnitskiy in another heavyweight attraction.
The M-1 Selection is a year long team-based competition featuring the top fight gyms in Russia challenging each other for the right to represent their home country during the 2010 season of the M-1 Challenge.
Complete weigh-in results are as follows:
Rating Fights -
1. Middleweight: Alexei Nazarov (81.7 kg/ 180.1 lbs.) vs. Dmitry Surnev (81.8/180.34 lbs.)
2. Heavyweight: Alexander Volkov (104 kg/229.28 lbs.) vs. Nikolay Pleshakov (96.7/213.19lbs.)
Team Perm vs. Team Sochi -
3. Lightweight: Jamaldin Kubachev (69.5 kg/153.22 lbs.) (Team Perm) vs. Armen Amanyan (69.3 kg/152.78 lbs.) (Team Sochi)
4. Welterweight: Rustam Thagabsoev (74.1 kg/163.36lbs.) (Team Perm) vs. Bislan Elteshev (74.55 kg/164.35 lbs.) (Team Sochi)
5. Middleweight: Anatoliy Lavrov (81 kg/178.57 lbs.) (Team Perm) vs. Agop Topchyan (82.3 kg/181.44 lbs.) (Team Sochi)
6. Light Heavyweight: Aleksander Gordilov (87.7 kg/193.35 lbs.) (Team Perm) vs. Rasul Magomedov (88.9 kg/195.99 lbs.) (Team Sochi)
7. Heavyweight: Rizvan Ganiyalov (92.8 kg/204.59 lbs.) (Team Perm) vs. Telman Sherifov (105.7 kg/233.03 lbs.) (Team Sochi)
Team Action Force vs. Team Nizniy Novgorod -
8. Lightweight: Karen Grigoryan (69.4 kg/153 lbs.) (Action Force) vs. Maxim Rozhkov (64.7 kg/142.64 lbs.) (Nizniy Novgorod)
9. Welterweight: Bagavdin Gajimuradov (74.9 kg/165.13 lbs.) (Action Force) vs. Vener Galiev (75.16 kg/165.7 lbs.) (Nizniy Novgorod)
10. Middleweight: Artur Guseinov (82.4 kg/181.66 lbs.) (Action Force) vs. Alexei Gagarin (81 kg/178.57 lbs.) (Nizniy Novgorod)
11. Light Heavyweight: Abdula Mutalimov (84.1 kg/185.41 lbs.) (Action Force) vs. Vyacheslav Vasilevskiy(86.7 kg/191.14 lbs.) (Nizniy Novgorod)
12. Heavyweight: Alexei Butorin (97 kg/213.85 lbs.) (Action Force) vs. Sergey Khramov (100 kg/220.46 lbs.) (Nizniy Novgorod)
Team Rusfighters vs. Team Legion -
13. Lightweight: Akop Stepanyan (* kg/* lbs.) (Rusfighters) vs. Zagalav Mahachev (69 kg/152.12 lbs.) (Legion)
14. Welterweight: Vladimir Papusha (73.8 kg/162.7 lbs.) (Rusfighters) vs. Rustam Habylov (74.8 kg/164.91 lbs.) (Legion)
15. Middleweight: Denis Semenov (82.9 kg/182.76 lbs.) (Rusfighters) vs. Ruslan Hashanov (83.2 kg/183.42 lbs.) (Legion)
16. Light Heavyweight: Dmitry Pashinin (91.7 kg/202.16 lbs.) (Rusfighters) vs. Gajimurad Omarov (92.5 kg/203.93 lbs.) (Legion)
17. Heavyweight: Baga Agaev (106 kg/233.69 lbs.) (Rusfighters) vs. Bogdan Hmelnitskiy (121 kg/266.76 lbs.) (Legion)