Earlier in the week we touched on the fact that while making the pre-Fabricio Werdum-fight, media rounds, having the spotlight once again on Fedor Emelianenko has reignited the ‘will Fedor ever sign with the UFC’ speculation. Naturally, yet again, this has fed more rampant ‘where does Fedor rank all time?’, ‘could he beat the UFC’s best heavyweights?’ and ‘why does Dana White love to make Fedor fans cry?’ discussion.
Of course, part of the reason for this has been due to various comments “The Last Emperor” has made himself. In a recent teleconference Fedor reportedly stated “I’m not a UFC fan”, before adding that “there seems to be negativity in a lot of their shows.” This, coupled with other recent statements where Fedor’s admitted he doesn’t give a flying eff about his critics or what they say, probably punted a lot of people’s hopes that he may still, someday, face Brock Lesnar, Shane Carwin, etc.
Well, in an interview this week with MMA Fighting’s Ben Fowlkes, Fedor had this to say, when asked to clarify what’s the difference between how Strikeforce and the UFC promote the sport.
“I did not want to offend the UFC in any way. What I meant is, I don’t like to watch fights in general. My main concern is what kind of culture I bring, myself.”
Interesting. Now is that just clarifying or backing off? Emelianenko went on to say that when his deal with Strikeforce is done, the UFC will have an opportunity to offer him “a contract that may be interesting to me.” Huh. And around and around we go…