Rashid Yusupov to Defend LHW Title Against Stephan Puetz at M-1 Challenge 74

M-1 Global expects to explode into 2017 as the Russian MMA promotion announced that its light heavyweight champion will be in action in the main event of M-1 Challenge 74.

Rashid Yusupov will defend his 205-pound title against former champ Stephan Puetz in the event’s featured bout, which goes down in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Feb. 18. The event will be streamed live on M1global.tv, though an exact time of the stream has yet to be revealed.

Yusupov, an unbeaten powerhouse out of Dagestan, is looking to be successful in the first defense of his title. He won the strap at M-1 Challenge 66 this past May by edging Viktor Nemkov via five-round decision. The Gorets Fight Club representative has stormed into M-1 as he’s also beaten Martin Zawada and Charles Andrade via decision and Mitry Madvedev by knockout.

Puetz, meanwhile, is aiming to win back his title. He first captured the light heavyweight strap by narrowly toppling Nemkov via split decision back at M-1 Challenge 46. From there, the German successfully defended the title against Luis Fernando (submission) and Valery Myasnikov (knockout) and then stopped heavyweight champ Marcin Tybura in a non-title super bout. At M-1 Challenge 63, however, he lost this crown to Nemkov via majority decision and has since won two in a row to get back into title contention.

More bouts for M-1 Challenge 74 will be announced soon.