A year after his release from GLORY, the organization’s former light heavyweight champion, Artem Vakhitov, will make his mixed martial arts debut at Open FC 31 on June 11 in Sheregesh.
The opponent of the Russian will be the Egyptian Ashraf Bashandi, who has four victories and one defeat in his amateur MMA.
32-year-old Artem Vakhitov, who has a record of 23-6 in kickboxing, fought his last fight at GLORY in September 2021, defeating Brazilian Alex Pereira by a majority vote, who then moved to the UFC and became the champion of the strongest league in the world. In February of this year, the Russian returned to the ring at the Muaythai Factory tournament in Kemerovo, defeating Frenchman Pascal Touré by unanimous decision in three rounds.
Recall that in June last year, the leadership of GLORY announced the dismissal of all Russian fighters, citing the fact that the problems associated with organizing fights are insurmountable. After that, Vakhitov’s manager, Andrey Busygin, announced that they were considering the possibility of moving to MMA, and were in dialogue with representatives of the UFC, PFL and ONE Championship.
Source: https://fighttime.ru/news/item/31435-artem-vakhitov-debyutiruet-v-mma.html?rand=19907
