“The Last Emporer” Fedor Emelianenko (31-2) may be looking to make his return to the Strikeforce cage against one of the biggest opponents in the promotion this coming December.
Sources within the Russian’s camp spoke to MMAjunkie.com and told them that a fight with Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva (14-2) is currently being negotiated for Fedor’s next fight.
Emelianenko suffered his first real defeat in June against Fabricio Werdum at the “Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum” event, after getting caught in a triangle choke and tapping out at 69 seconds of the first round. Fedor’s first loss was due to a doctors stoppage back in 2000 under the Rings banner, basically he was cut by an illegal elbow, for which he was unable to advance in the tournament and thus declared the loser.
Silva is coming off a unanimous decision victory over former UFC heavyweight champ Andrei Arlovski in May’s “Strikeforce: Heavy Artillery” show. “Bigfoot” bounced back from a loss in his previous fight to Werdum. The Brazilian is 7-1 in his past eight fights and may not even face Fedor as there has been some talk about him possibly facing Alistair Overeem in the fall also.
An Overeem vs. Silva fight would definitely be interesting but the Strikeforce champ has made it clear that he wants to face Werdum next, so he may head to K-1 instead and wait for Werdum to return from injury in the new year.