As many of us are waiting impatiently for the return of “The Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko (32-2) to the cage, Friday’s news was a bright light that finally fans would see the Russian heavyweight return at the end of January to face Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva (15-2).
Not so fast, representatives from both Strikeforce and M-1 Global are saying that negotiations are still ongoing, that nothing has been finalized for the Jan. 29th Strikeforce card.
A report by Sherdog.com has both sides talking about a February date for Fedor’s return, not the end January card.
CEO Scott Coker commented on the negotiations with M-1.
“You know how these things are, they go back and forth. We send them documents; they send them back… They want changes; we want changes. I’m just trying to get the lawyers to hurry and finish it up so we can make some great fights. It’s hard to talk about opponents. Normally, you talk to someone about opponents only after you have a contract with somebody. We’re working through the final stages of the deal. We are not there yet. I wish we were.”
Breaking the news of the upcoming fight seems a bit premature but is likely a pressure tactic by one of the sides to bring about a resolution to the negotiations. I’ll leave it up to you to guess speculate as to which side that could be, but I’m guessing they like a sip of Vodka every now and then.