Earlier in the week we touched on the fact that it was beginning to look like Strikeforce might roll with Dan Henderson vs. Jake Shields, as the main attraction for the promotion’s upcoming April card. Well according to a report this afternoon from MMA Fighting, M-1 Global officials have announced at a press conference today in Russia, that Fedor’s next bout will be in May (due to the fact that we barely made it through grade 12 English, we made no attempt to decipher what was being said in Russian at the presser).
As expected, it was also confirmed that Fedor will in fact fight Fabricio Werdum, which kyboshes the more recent rumors that Emelianenko was possibly going to fight Alistair Overeem in Japan. So, once again another 6 months will expire between Fedor bouts, as the Russian’s ‘whammy’’ win over Brett Rogers took place in November. Anyone who is familiar with Fedor’s schedule over the last couple of years should realize that this effectively means “The Last Emperor” will fight just twice in 2010…(we’ve already smashed one coffee mug and eaten 2 extra Twinkies in despair.)
A follow up report from MMA Junkie adds that under the terms of Fedor’s Strikeforce contract, his bouts must be shown on CBS, which would mean that Hendo vs. Shields will likely be aired on Showtime. If Gegard Mousasi vs. “King Mo” Lawal gets inked for the April card it could be pretty sweet. Would have been nice to see Fedor throw down a little sooner though…