Russian heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko (32-2) looks set to make his return to the cage on February 12 against Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva (15-2).
Sherdog.com broke the exclusive on Monday. They were informed of the upcoming fight by sources close to the negotiations.
Fedor and Silva will meet at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J. in the opening round of Strikeforce’s eight-man heavyweight tournament.
Also confirmed for the tournament will be former UFC heavyweight champs Andrei Arlovski (15-8) and Josh Barnett (26-5), who will battle it out on the same Feb. 12 card in New Jersey. A third rumored matchup between Fabricio Werdum vs. Brett Rogers is expected for a March show. No news was provided as to who the fourth semi-final matchup fighters would be.
Fedor was defeated by Werdum for the first time in ten years last summer in a huge upset as the Russian was the heavy favorite to win. It was “The Last Emporer’s” second Strikeforce appearance having TKO’d Brett Rogers in November of 2009 in his promotional debut.
“Bigfoot” Silva has won two straight and is 2-1 since joining the Strikeforce promotion. The Brazilian defeated Mike Kyle by knockout in December after the fighter took the bout on short notice after his original opponent, Valentijn Overeem was forced to withdraw due to injury. Silva also earned a unanimous decision win over Arlovski in May at the Strikeforce: Heavy Artillery event and was submitted by Werdum in his Strikeforce debut in November of 2009.
Update: MMAFighting.com says the deal isn’t done yet and it hinges on whether negotiations can get done by the end of this week.
“it was likely that Emelianenko’s participation on the card would require that the deal be done by the end of this week, and that the two sides had several outstanding issues to deal with.”