“The Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko (32-2) recently answered fan questions in a Q&A article found on Mixfight.ru. Fedor is still looking for a rematch with Fabricio Werdum and a shot at Alistair Overeem.
Here are a couple of the highlights from the article.
When asked when he’ll face current Strikeforce champ Alistair Overeem, Fedor replied “I do not know when … I know that he refuses …”
Asked about his next bout, Fedor answers “To date, Strike Force organization could not offer me a serious opponent. Alistair Overeem finds various excuses from our fight. The remaining stars have lost in recent battles, and so the organization does not express a desire to put them against me. And Fabricio Werdum had the surgery and also not yet ready to act. In addition, under a contract with this organization, I was one fight.”
(HT: LowKick.com for the find)
Alistair Overeem’s manager Bas Boon was quick to respond to the article on Facebook.
“15 months we want to fight Fedor, but Fedor wanted (none strikeforce title holder) Rogers instead, then after Alistair destroys Rogers, Fedor fights Werdrum? Alistair goes to challenge the winner , which is Werdrum. Fedor only want rematch with Werdrum and not fight with Alistair.
“Werdum out with injury, we still want to fight Fedor, but he refuses. Then when we finally decided to particpate in K-1 and make the news official, M-1/ Fedor wants to fight Overeem 2 days after Alistair and GG make an official statement that he will fight in the K-1 WGP, what a joke M1/Fedor!!”
Boon is the head of Golden Glory, a Dutch kickboxing and mma camp which is home to Overeem.
It looks like a case of he said, she said really. Although there are some similarities between this and last years UFC/M-1 negotiations about who said what.
The only person who hasn’t made a statement is Fedor’s manager Vadim Finkelstein, the one that is supposed to negotiate these fights for the Russian heavyweight. Love is blind they say.