Alexander Sarnavskiy (, born January 17, 1989) is a Russian mixed martial artist who competes in the lightweight division. 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. Mixed martial arts career Background Sarnavskiy trains at RusFighters Sport Club, which is also home to Bellator season three middleweight champion Alexander Shlemenko. Like Shlemenko, Sarnavskiy shows a tendency to prefer the striking aspect of fighting, though he is regarded as skilled on the ground too, as evidenced by his opening two victories coming via triangle choke. M-1 Global 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. 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. Bellator MMA 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