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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
M-1 Global and Showtime have reached an agreement to air M-1 Challenge events on the pay-cable network in 2011, according to a report from MMAFighting.com.
Four M-1 Challenge events will air on Showtime beginning on March 25. That first card comes from the Constant Convocation Center in Norfolk, Va, airing live at 11PM ET.
M-1 Global's relationship with Showtime came to be through Strikeforce and Fedor Emelianenko. Emelianenko owns a 10% stake in the company, whose promotional side has run events for over a decade in different incarnations.
According to the MMAFighting.com report, the first Showtime event will be headlined by M-1 lightweight champion Artiom Damkovsky against Jose Figueroa. Also, a middleweight title fight is expected between Tyson Jeffries and the winner of bout between Plinio Cruz and Magomed Sultanakhmedov on March 5.
Penick's Analysis: M-1's most recent round of renegotiations with Showtime and Strikeforce for Fedor's services kicked up talks of getting this done, so they did good to get themselves onto the station. With just four events this year airing, they're not likely to gain a really strong foothold yet with Showtime, but if Showtime finds they can draw similar numbers as, say, the Challengers series events, M-1 can get more of their Challenge events on Showtime in 2012. What this means for Strikeforce remains to be seen, but M-1 successfully used their leverage with Fedor to get themselves a TV deal.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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