It looks as if contract negotiations between Strikeforce and M-1 Global have gone well between the two as an early morning report from MMAWeekly.com has the “Last Russian Emporer” Fedor Emelianenko (32-2) returning to the cage on Jan. 29th to face Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva (15-2).
This would mark the return of the Russian heavyweight since his stunning loss to Fabricio Werdum last June. Since then Fedor had been looking for an immediate rematch with Werdum, who took time off to have surgery, and then the Russian’s management fell into renegotiation’s with Strikeforce for the remainder of the fall.
Before the loss Fedor had an amazing 28 fight undefeated streak and looked poised to fight Strikeforce champ Alistair Overeem next. But the loss and a Fedor vs. Silva bout leaves the Strikeforce title up in the air, possibly the promotion will try to book a Werdum vs. Overeem for the Spring.
Meanwhile, Silva has won two straight winning a TKO victory over Mike Kyle earlier this month. Kyle took the fight at the last minute and almost rocked “Bigfoot” in the first round, but the former EliteXC champion survived into the second and opened up a strong ground-and-pound to finish the fight at 2:49. Silva also defeated Andrei Arlovski earlier this year, winning a unanimous decision at Strikeforce: Heavy Artillery in May.