A few updates surfaced over this past weekend after the official Strikeforce announcement that the ‘Last Emporer’ Fedor Emelianenko and promotion light heavyweight champ, Dan Henderson, would meet on July 30 at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.
Rumors had persisted that both men would meet at a 220 lb catchweight bout, but Henderson cleared that up by responding to a fan on Twitter (@danhendo) confirming the fight will be a heavyweight match.
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– Fight is at heavyweight. RT @KinchKid: @danhendo is your fight at 220 catch weight?! Damn dirty Russians…
While ESPN reporter Josh Gross posted a note on Twitter (@JoshGrossESPN) concerning the salaries of both fighters. Emelianenko will reportedly make $1.5 million, while Henderson is expected to make $800,000 for the bout.
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– Sources: Fedor takes home $1.5 M while Henderson makes $800k for their fight in July. Huge purses. Zuffa will have hard time making money.
The salary for Fedor alone dwarfs the entire reported salaries for any single UFC event, let alone one for Strikeforce. The UFC does offer bonuses to their fighters, but those numbers go unreported which is the way they prefer to keep things.
Strikeforce is going to have to pull in some very large numbers on Showtime as well as at the gate for the Sears Centre. I believe attendance for their best events has hovered around the low 10,000’s, far from the UFC gate totals.
Let’s hope that Strikeforce hasn’t bet the bank on this single fight.