Red Devil Sport Club

Red Devil Sport Club

Est.	1997
Founded by	Vadim Finkelstein
Primary trainers	Aleksander Vasilievich Michkov, Vladimir Mikhaylovich Voronov, Yuri Razumov
Current titleholders	Fedor Emelianenko heavyweight champion (WAMMA 2008) +205 lb (93 kg) Gegard Mousasi middleweight Grand Prix winner (DREAM FC 2008) 185 lb (84 kg) Gegard Mousasi light-heavyweight champion (Strikeforce 2009) 205 lb (93 kg)
Past titleholders	Fedor Emelianenko heavyweight champion (PRIDE FC - defunct) +204.6 lb (92.8 kg) heavyweight Grand Prix winner (PRIDE FC 2004) +204.6 lb (92.8 kg) Gegard Mousasi middleweight champion (DREAM FC 2008, vacated) 185 lb (84 kg) ;
Prominent fighters	Fedor Emelianenko Aleksander Emelianenko Roman Zentsov Gegard Mousasi Amar Suloev Kirill Sidelnikov
Training facilities	St. Petersburg Russia
Website	Red Devil's Website

The Red Devil Sport Club is a mixed martial arts academy in St. Petersburg, Russia, founded by Vadim Finkelstein.

The team’s main fighter base is made up of Russian and Armenian Sambo fighters who have adapted their style to mixed martial arts, and they regularly compete in full contact combat sambo tournaments. Initially Red Devil featured fighters primarily were some of the stars of Finkelstien's mma promotion M-1 Global such as Ibragim Magomedov, Roman Zentsov, Amar Suloev, and Arman Gambaryan. Throughout the history of M-1 global, Red Devil has competed in team events, and have proven consistently to be among Russia's best mma teams.

Since 2005 the team’s most notable fighters are the brothers Fedor and Aleksander Emelianenko. The Emelianenko brother's left Russian Top Team due to claims of management abuse, and since that time the primary trainers for Red Devil have been the Emelianenko's childhood coaches Vladimir Voronov, and Aleksander Michkov. The membership and popularity of the team has increased since Fedor and Aleksander joined as well, primarily drawing from the ranks of Russia's Combat Sambo competitors. Former champions such as Mikhail Zayats, Victor Nemkov, Aleksander Garkushenko, among others have been drawn to the club since the success of the Emelianenko's.

Because of Fedor’s previous association with the Russian Top Team, the two MMA associations maintained a cohabitant rivalry, until Russian Top Team was largely disovled following the death of former manager Vladimir Pogonin, as well as the retirement of the team's former featured coach and fighter Volk Han.

In 2009 Aleksander Emelianenko officially left the Red Devil for unexplained reasons, however he currently continues to train with his brothers Fedor, and Ivan, along with longtime coach Vladimir Voronin, Aleksander Michkov, and family friend Kiril Sidelnikov in Stary Oskol, Russia.

The team competed in the 2008 M-1 Challenge championship (M-1 Challenge # 1) and won it. In 2009 it performed much worse failing to win its group in the M-1 Challenge. This is thought to be largely due to the frequency in which Red Devil enters some of its most inexperienced members into the M-1 challenge events. The team also goes by the name 'Imperial Team' as its current feature fighter Fedor Emelianenko has reservations over the name 'Red Devil', and due to spiritual reasons prefers the name Imperial Team.

Associated Fighters

• Alexey Nazarov
• Alexey Cherepovsky
• Gegard Mousasi
• Alexey Oleinik
• Amar Suloev
• Victor Nemkov
• Andrey Lisitsyn
• Dmitri Samoliov
• Arman Gambaryan
• Kirill Sidelnikov
• Mikhail Zayats
• Baga Agaev
• Mikhail Malyutin
• Fedor Emelianenko
• Ivan Emelianenko
• Tamerlan Urtaev
• Erik Oganov
• Radmir Gabdullin
• Roman Zentsov
• Uriy Pulaev
• Dzhamal Kubanov
• Musail Allaundinov
• Anton Arkhipin
• Sergei Betsky
• Nikolai Onikienko
• Uriy Pulaev
• Amir Shankhalov

References

• Red Devil Sport Club Roster
• Red Devil on GymDb
• M-1 Mixfight Homepage
• The Official Site of Fedor Emelyanenko