Yesterday I translated a little new blurb from Fedor's official website on what's next for him and his participation in Russian Combat Sambo Championship, but forgot to check mixfight.ru to see if they posted anything on it. And they did post a picture gallery of the "Red Devil" team preparing for the championship.

Today was the first day of the championship and there is an article on the results at mixfight.ru but it's only in russian. Here is what it says:

The first day of Russian Combat Sambo Championship took place today at St. Petersburg's SKK.

The Red Devil club was represented by 4 fighters in two weight classes.

In 90 kg weight category, Victor Nemkov confidently started his bout versus Alexei Veselovzorov, dominated in stand up, then did a throw for 4 points, but after the throw lost concentration and gave up his hand, which an experienced and skilled fighter like Alexei immediately took advantage of by armbar for the win. Victor Nemkov continued to fight in the cancellation bracket and in the fight for the third place he knocked out his opponent with a knee.

Another fighter from the Red Devil club - Mihail Zayats, who quickly won in the two fights prior, met  Veselovorov in the semi-finals. The semi-final bout between these two fighters turned out to be tough and difficult, but with every minute Mihail confidently kept gaining advantage and won in the end before the time was up.

In the finals of this weight category, Mihail outpointed Vyacheslav Vasilevskii from Krasnoyarsk and became the Russian champion.

Fedor Emilianenko and Alexandr Kosarev participated the over 100 kg weight category.

It was Kosarev's debut in a tournament of this level and in the fights with more senior and more experienced fighters he looked rather confident. Having won his first fight by knockout, Kosarev met Stanislav Shushko and was confidently leading the bout with 5-0 score, but then by accident while advancing forward he was leg tripped from standing to his back and the referee awarded "clean" victory to Shushko. In the cancellation bracket Alexandr knocked out another opponent and for the fight for the third place his opponent forfeit due to injury.

As predicted, Fedor Emelianenko easily won all of his three fights.  None of his opponents in this Russian championship forfeited as it has happened before in world and European championships, to the credit of our fighters.

In his first fight, Fedor quickly attacked, after a combination of strikes he took his opponent down and submitted him. The fight was 35 seconds long. His second fight was even shorter - Fedor broke his opponent's nose on the 10th second.

The final fight against Stanislav Shushko took a little bit longer. Stanislav tried to keep Fedor at a distance using his height advantage, but Fedor closed the distance with a combination, went for a throw and a holddown. Then the fighters ended up in standing position again and the situation happened again - a combination of strikes from the champion, a throw, but this time Fedor finished his attack with a submission and won at 1 minute and 1 seconds.

In the breaks between fights Fedor was surrounded by a crowd of fan and the champion did not refuse anyone his autograph or taking a picture with him.

The winner of  the 74 kg weight category was a very experienced fighter, who is well known in Russia and outside - Vener Galiev. He, it seemed, out matched his opponents in all aspects, finishing all his fights decisively and beautifully.

At the opening ceremony Vladimir Voronin was awarded an honorary title of "Deserved coach of Russia". We congratulate him definately DESERVED award.

Those are the results of the first day of the competition.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Well, first of all, Russian Sambo fighters are apparently have a lot more courage than some of their international counter parts and were not afraid to face Fedor no matter the out come. Cool.

Second, nice to see Fedor win all of his three fights. It still surprises me that the sport that produced him cannot give him any meaningful competition, yet. At the same time it's neat to see him being so commited to his national sport and trying to make it popular. It was one of the things he was looking forward to when he mentioned it in his recent interview.

Another surprising thing to me was that an equivalent of a Judo Ippon still has it's place in the Combat version of Sambo and can end the fight.

I'll keep you updated if anything else comes up about it.