Alexander Sarnavskiy

Alexander Sarnavskiy (Александр Сарнавский, born January 17, 1989) is a Russian mixed martial artist who competes in the lightweight division.

Alexander Sarnavsky was born in 1989 in the village.

Gorky (Kazakhstan).

In 1998 he moved with his family to Omsk, where his sports career began.

The first discipline was kickboxing, which the young man mastered for 2 years at the Lokomotiv club and achieved success in regional competitions.

Later, he was attracted by pankration and Alexander switched to hand-to-hand combat and combat sambo at the Saturn-Profi martial arts school.

Hobbies grew into a professional approach at the age of 18, when Sarnavsky decided to try his hand at mixed martial arts.

He was led to this step by the example of a coach, Alexander Shlemenko.

After compiling a record of 8–0 (3 submission, 4 KO/TKOs), Sarnavskiy joined M-1 Global to enter their selection tournament.

His opening round fight was against Maxim Kuptsov.

Midway through the first round, Sarnavskiy caught his opponent in a body triangle and peppered him with punches from behind.

He soon went for a rear naked choke, which forced the tapout from Kuptsov.

Sarnavskiy then faced Karen Grigoryan in the next round, defeating him by split decision, advancing him to the final.

Following the win over Grigoryan, Sherdog ranked him as the number one undefeated European prospect in the sport.

Around the same time, Sarnavskiy was scheduled to face Artiom Damkovsky at the M-1 Eastern European Finals.

The bout was cancelled however and Damkovsky faced a replacement opponent in the final.

Appearing at M-1 Challenge XXI: Guram vs. Garner, Sarnavskiy faced Victor Kuku.

Immediately, Sarnavskiy went after Kuku and went for a flying knee.

Sarnavskiy's spinning back fist knocked Kuku down, before he hit Kuku with a barrage of punches to claim the knockout win.

A professional MMA competitor since 2008, Sarnavskiy has mostly competed in his native Russia, where he is an M-1 Global veteran and former lightweight division in the Bellator Fighting Championships.

Sarnavskiy made his U.S. MMA debut in Norfolk, Virginia on March 25, 2011, on the televised portion of M-1 Challenge: Damkovsky vs. Figueroa.

He faced late replacement Beau Baker and won the fight via submission in the second round.

On June 19, 2012, Sarnavskiy signed with Bellator, thus terminating the contract with M-1 Global.

Sarnavskiy entered as a participant in the Bellator season seven lightweight tournament.

In the opening round, he faced Rich Clementi on October 19, 2012, at Bellator 77.

He lost the fight via split decision (29–28, 28–29, 30–26).

Sarnavskiy defeated Tony Hervey on November 30, 2012, at Bellator 82 via unanimous decision (30–27, 30–27, 30–27).

In 2013, Sarnavskiy entered as a participant in the Bellator Season 8 Lightweight tournament.

He faced Brazilian Kickboxer Thiago Michel in the quarter-finals on January 31, 2013, at Bellator 87 and won via submission in the second round.

Sarnavskiy was originally scheduled to face David Rickels in the semifinals.

However, Sarnavskiy fractured his hand during his first fight and had to withdraw from the tournament.

In the fall of 2013, Sarnavskiy entered the next Lightweight tournament.

He faced Marcus Davis on September 27, 2013, at Bellator 101 in the quarterfinals of Bellator's Season Nine Lightweight Tournament.

After knocking Davis down with a punch, he took his back and eventually won via a rear naked choke submission.

Sarnavskiy faced Ricardo Tirloni in the semifinals and won via triangle choke in the first round.

Sarnavskiy faced Will Brooks in the finals and lost via unanimous decision.

After nearly a year away from the Bellator cage, Sarnavskiy was expected to face John Gunderson on October 10, 2014, at Bellator 128.

However, Gunderson withdrew from the bout and retired from MMA fighting.

Derek Campos stepped in as a replacement.

An injury forced Campos out of the fight, Sarnavskiy eventually faced promotional newcomer Dakota Cochrane.