Former UFC Light Heavyweight Fabio Maldonado Involved in Freak Household Accident

Former UFC light heavyweight Fabio Maldonado, who has fought everyone from current UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic to all-time great Fedor Emelianenko, recently got back in the win column. At EFN 60 in March, he picked up his first win since 2014 with a TKO over Abdl-Khamid-Davlyatov. Sadly, it looks like Maldonado will be out […]

Former UFC light heavyweight Fabio Maldonado, who has fought everyone from current UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic to all-time great Fedor Emelianenko, recently got back in the win column. At EFN 60 in March, he picked up his first win since 2014 with a TKO over Abdl-Khamid-Davlyatov. Sadly, it looks like Maldonado will be out […]

Fedor’s Controversial Win Over Maldonado From EFN 50 Officially Overturned To A Draw

While it’s very rare that a judges decision ever gets overturned by a commission, that’s exactly what happened this week when it was announced that the controversial decision in favor of Fedor Emelianenko over Fabio Maldonado was changed to a draw.

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While it’s very rare that a judges decision ever gets overturned by a commission, that’s exactly what happened this week when it was announced that the controversial decision in favor of Fedor Emelianenko over Fabio Maldonado was changed to a draw.

Due to the fact that the event was held in Fedor’s home country of Russia, and was sanctioned by the Russian MMA Union, the result will not be overturned by them. In fact, the Russian MMA Union, which Fedor serves as President for, denied Maldonado’s attempt to appeal the decision, citing a rule where an appeal must be officially entered within 40 minutes of the fight ending.

Because of what Maldonado claimed was a conflict of interest, he continued on with his attempts to get the decision overturned, as his team went above the Russian MMA Union to the World MMA Association (WMMAA). The WMMAA ended up suspending Radmir Gabdullin, (the Vice President of the Russian MMA Union, who just so happens to be a former M-1 Global fighter and training partner/friend of Fedor’s) who denied the initial appeal, and had three impartial judges re-evaluate and re-score the fight.

The three judges chosen were Youri Lamoureux from Canada, Lukasz Bosacki from Poland and Alexey Zemskov from Russia, all of which scored the fight the same way most in the MMA community did when they first saw it live on UFC Fight Pass, as they gave Maldonado the first round via a 10-8 score, and rounds two and three to Fedor via 10-9 scores, making the official result a 28-28 draw across the board.

While the Russian MMA Union won’t be honoring the decision of the WMMAA regarding the new draw ruling for the Fedor-Maldonado bout, which took place from St. Petersburg, Russia last month at the EFN 50 event, the rest of the MMA world will be going with the revised result.

H/T to BloodyElbow.com for some of the of information included in the above report.

Maldonado Files A Second Appeal To Overturn Loss To Fedor, Confident He Will Win

https://youtu.be/mbv6u5hJZBE

After initially claiming he wouldn’t, Fabio Maldonado ended up filing an official protest regarding the decision of his fight with MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko at the EFN 50 event in Fedor’s home country of Russia. This …

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https://youtu.be/mbv6u5hJZBE

After initially claiming he wouldn’t, Fabio Maldonado ended up filing an official protest regarding the decision of his fight with MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko at the EFN 50 event in Fedor’s home country of Russia. This week, the former UFC contender took things one step further.

Stefano Sartori, who is the manager for Maldonado, spoke with MMAFighting.com just 48 hours after their fight, pointing out that they had appealed the decision to the Russian MMA Union.

Radmir Gabdullin, the Vice President of the Russian MMA Union, who coincidentally enough is a training partner of Fedor’s, released his own statement on the official Russian MMA Union website where he claimed that the decision would not be overturned, and that the appeal was required to be filed within 40 minutes after their fight concluded.

After seeing the statement from Gabdullin, Sartori reached out to the World MMA Association (WMMAA), which oversees the Russian MMA Union, and appealed the result through that channel.

Below is the complete letter that Sartori sent the WMMAA:

Hello.

I am Stefano Sartori, manager of Brazilian MMA fighter Fabio Maldonado and we are writing this email to officially appeal about the result of my client fight against Fedor Emilianenko in June 17 on the Main Event of Fight Nights 50.

We watched the tape many times with cool head and we realized there is no way we lost the fight. It’s either draw or Fabio’s victory. We won R1 with a clear 10-8, not to mention that everyone else in the world besides Official Referee would have stopped that fight. Fedor was tough and came back to won the R2 10-9. The last one is really close and could go either way. So it’s either Fabio’s victory or a draw.

We were extremely surprised to have learned that all the judges of the bout were Russian and they all are employed by no other than Fedor Emelianenko who is the president of Russian MMA Union that sanctioned these judges.

Even worse, Radmir Gabdullin who was the head judge of the bout is the Russian MMA Union’s vice-president. You can see it here http://unionmma.ru/structure/

If it is not a clear case of conflict of interest, I don’t know what to call this. To have a fair judgment of this fight it is required to have independent international judges and that is what we claim with this official letter.

Since mister Gabdullin said to the Russian Press that he would refuse to accept our appeal and considering that we feel that Russian judges would be under too much pressure on this case, we have no other choice but to appeal to World MMA Association that is an umbrella organization with Russian MMA union being part of it.

Before finishing I want to say that I truly believe that Russian MMA Judges haven’t done anything to intentionally harm my client. The conflict of interest, to my eyes, is natural when you judge someone who is personally so close to you. That’s why we respectfully ask for another referee team to watch and judge this fight.

Best Regards,

Stefano Sartori

After receiving the letter from Maldonado’s manager, the WMMAA announced via their official website that they will be appointing a group of “objective international judges” to review the fight in its’ entirety once again. They have also announced that Gabdullin has been temporarily suspended from his position. Sartori went out to explain to MMAFighting.com that there is a “good chance” that the official result of the Fedor-Maldonado bout will be overturned.

The full statement that WMMAA released on their official website regarding the situation can be read in full below.

WMMAA received an appeal request from Stefano Sartori who is Brazilian Fabio Maldonado’s manager. In his appeal mister Sartori asks to appoint an independent judges’ commission that would reassess the results of the bout between Fedor Emelianenko and Fabio Maldonado.

Since all the rights belong to the organizing party of the event, Fight Nights promotion, any reassessment would be made possible if triggered by the promotion in question. However, based on the received appeal, WMMAA’s overall responsibility for positive cooperation within sports community and because the whole issue brought up a lot of negative publicity towards judges of Russian MMA Union which is part of WMMAA, the Association is forced to react and assess both the situation occurred as well as the quality of decisions made by its licensed judges.

Accordingly, WMMAA’s president announces the following sequence of actions:

– appoint Secretary General Alexander Engelhardt responsible for handling of the said appeal procedure;

– appoint a group of objective international judges under the guidance of experienced referee / judge in Marco Broersen (the Netherlands); the group is to assess the fight based on the tape and render an unbiased verdict regarding the fight and the judges’ work.

– temporarily suspend WMMAA’s head judge Radmir Gabdullin from his position.

– discuss judges’ work at the next WMMAA Congress taking into account the pending verdict of the independent commission.

H/T to Brazilian MMA reporter Guilherme Cruz and MMAFighting.com

Maldonado’s Appeal Still Alive After Fedor’s Judge Friend Gets Ousted

Legendary heavyweight Fedor “The Last Emperor” Emelianenko was nearly finished in the first round of his main event fight with ex-UFC light heavyweight Fabio Maldonado at June 17’s EFN 50. Emelianenko, bloodied and battered, would ultimately recover and fight back to earn a questionable decision victory. Many had felt as if Maldonado had gotten the

The post Maldonado’s Appeal Still Alive After Fedor’s Judge Friend Gets Ousted appeared first on LowKick MMA.

Legendary heavyweight Fedor “The Last Emperor” Emelianenko was nearly finished in the first round of his main event fight with ex-UFC light heavyweight Fabio Maldonado at June 17’s EFN 50. Emelianenko, bloodied and battered, would ultimately recover and fight back to earn a questionable decision victory.

Many had felt as if Maldonado had gotten the better of Emelianenko, and the situation became ever more skeptical when it was revealed that the referee and judges controlling the fight were from the Russian MMA union, which is headed by non-other than “The Last Emperor” himself.

In the aftermath of the controversial decision, it has been made clear that Maldonado will fight the verdict. Check out the full appeal from the Brazilian slugger below:

Hello.

I am Stefano Sartori, manager of Brazilian MMA fighter Fabio Maldonado and we are writing this email to officially appeal about the result of my client fight against Fedor Emilianenko in June 17 on the Main Event of Fight Nights 50.

We watched the tape many times with cool head and we realized there is no way we lost the fight. It’s either draw or Fabio’s victory.

We won R1 with a clear 10-8, not to mention that everyone else in the world besides Official Referee would have stopped that fight. Fedor was tough and came back to won the R2 10-9. The last one is really close and could go either way. So it’s either Fabio’s victory or a draw.

We were extremely surprised to have learned that all the judges of the bout were Russian and they all are employed by non other than Fedor Emelianenko who is the president of Russian MMA Union that sanctioned these judges.
Even worse, Radmir Gabdullin who was the head judge of the bout is the Russian MMA Union’s vice-president. You can see it here http://unionmma.ru/structure/

If it is not a clear case of conflict of interest, I don’t know what to call this. To have a fair judgement of this fight it is required to have independent international judges and that is what we claim with this official letter.

Since mister Gabdullin said to the Russian Press that he would refuse to accept our appeal and considering that we feel that Russian judges would be under too much pressure on this case, we have no other choice but to appeal to World MMA Association that is an umbrella organization with Russian MMA union being part of it.

Before finishing I want to say that I truly believe that Russian MMA Judges haven’t done anything to intentionally harm my client. The conflict of interest, to my eyes, is natural when you judge someone who is personally so close to you. That’s why we respectfully ask for another referee team to watch and judge this fight.

Best Regards,
Stefano Sartori

Given that Emelianenko has inside connections with the Russian MMA union, it may seem as if Maldonado has no chance with his appeal, but that may not be the case. The World MMA Association, which controls the Russian MMA union, has made a noteworthy decision that should keep Maldonado’s appeal live.

According to a statement, the WMMA, who recently accepted the Brazilian’s appeal, stated that they will be temporarily suspending head judge Radmir Gabdullin from his position. Gabdullin, who happens to be a close friend and former training partner of Emelianenko’s, previously denied the appeal attempt.

Stay tuned to LowKickMMA as more news unfolds on the situation?

The post Maldonado’s Appeal Still Alive After Fedor’s Judge Friend Gets Ousted appeared first on LowKick MMA.

Fabio Maldonado To Appeal Controversial Decision Loss To Fedor Emelianenko

fabio-maldonado

After his controversial majority decision loss to Fedor Emelianenko at the EFN 50 event in Russia this past weekend, former UFC contender Fabio Maldonado has apparently changed his tune regarding how he plans to handle everything.

Maldonado spoke shortly after his loss to Fedor, explaining why he felt he shouldn’t have lost the fight, and at the worst, should have had a draw with the MMA legend.

Later in the weekend, Maldonado’s manager, Stefano Satori released a statement to MMAFighting.com regarding their plans to appeal the majority decision loss ruling:

We’re very happy with Fabio’s performance, he made everything right inside the cage. One of our main goals was to show the world the fighter he truly is and what he can do when he is 100% focused, and we did that. But we went there focused on winning and we feel like the judges took that away from us. The promoters didn’t agree with the result and most of the fighters who were there also think the result was strange.

Round 1 was clearly a 10-8 for us, Round 2 Fedor got a close 10-9 and round 3 was very close but we think Maldonado got the better shots. It was a least a draw, and we will appeal to Russian MMA Union to review this result.

For highlights of the wild Fedor-Maldonado fight, click here.

fabio-maldonado

After his controversial majority decision loss to Fedor Emelianenko at the EFN 50 event in Russia this past weekend, former UFC contender Fabio Maldonado has apparently changed his tune regarding how he plans to handle everything.

Maldonado spoke shortly after his loss to Fedor, explaining why he felt he shouldn’t have lost the fight, and at the worst, should have had a draw with the MMA legend.

Later in the weekend, Maldonado’s manager, Stefano Satori released a statement to MMAFighting.com regarding their plans to appeal the majority decision loss ruling:

We’re very happy with Fabio’s performance, he made everything right inside the cage. One of our main goals was to show the world the fighter he truly is and what he can do when he is 100% focused, and we did that. But we went there focused on winning and we feel like the judges took that away from us. The promoters didn’t agree with the result and most of the fighters who were there also think the result was strange.

Round 1 was clearly a 10-8 for us, Round 2 Fedor got a close 10-9 and round 3 was very close but we think Maldonado got the better shots. It was a least a draw, and we will appeal to Russian MMA Union to review this result.

For highlights of the wild Fedor-Maldonado fight, click here.

Report: Judges & Referee At EFN 50 Work For Fedor, Maldonado Appealing Loss

Controversy in Russia, again… The strange story surrounding former Pride FC and BAMMA heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko continues. The Russian mixed martial arts legend was once considered the greatest pound-for-pound fighter on the globe, ruling the heavyweight category from Japan with an iron fist, and this was back when JMMA had the most legit talent on the

The post Report: Judges & Referee At EFN 50 Work For Fedor, Maldonado Appealing Loss appeared first on LowKick MMA.

Controversy in Russia, again…

The strange story surrounding former Pride FC and BAMMA heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko continues. The Russian mixed martial arts legend was once considered the greatest pound-for-pound fighter on the globe, ruling the heavyweight category from Japan with an iron fist, and this was back when JMMA had the most legit talent on the planet. Once Pride was made defunct, ‘The Last Emperor’ would test the waters in the USA, fighting for Strikeforce while trying to hash out a contract with the UFC.

The Ultimate Fighting championship would never sign Emelianenko, claiming he and his management team at the time, M-1 Global, were demanding unrealistic terms and pay. What did happen though was a crossover fight with Dan Henderson, at the time a light-heavyweight in the UFC, who would hand Emelianenko his third straight loss during a troublesome time in the Russian’s illustrious career.

Fedor Emelianenko vs Antonio Silva

Having been submitted by Fabricio Werdum and bludgeoned by ‘Bigfoot’ Silva, it was back to more familiar territory in Russia and Japan, and a considerable drop in calibre of competition for Fedor. Time had caught up to him, and straight wins over Jeff Monson, Satoshi Ishii and Pedro Rizzo weren’t exactly ground breaking, but served as a fair twilight to an illustrious service as a fighter. Emelianenko would retire in 2012 with a 34-4 (1) record.

It would be a short lived exit from the sport though, as ‘The Last Emperor’ would reveal his comeback in 2015, endlessly teasing potential opponents while speculation of a long-awaited UFC contract began raging all over again. The truth was that Fedor wouldn’t be fighting in the UFC, or even against credible competition upon his return, the consensus greatest heavyweight of his era would be fighting a 1-0 unknown MMA ‘fighter’ by the name of Jaideep Singh.

fedor 1What were we witnessing? The very man who so convincingly dispatched many fellow legends during his prime was now resorting to dangerous squash matches on Japanese turf? After crushing the clearly over matched and under qualified Singh, Emelianenko signed a one-fight deal with Euro Fight Nights, appearing at EFN 50 this past weekend. In possibly his most inglorious moment, Fedor has become embroiled in heavy controversy.

Here’s where things get a little deep, as numerous reports indicate some very shady happenings following Fedor’s majority decision win over UFC veteran Fabio Maldonado on June 17. Here’s a snippet of he action in St Petersburg, Russia:
After battering Emelianenko to near-death in the first round, arguably a 10-7 or at least 10-8 frame for Maldonado, the UFC veteran would go on to lose the fight by majority decision. At first glance, many argued this fight was, at best for Fedor, a draw, but clearly appeared to have been a convincing win for Maldonado. A troubling report by investigative journalist Karim Zidan would shed some light on this controversial matter:

Several days ahead of the anticipated Fedor vs. Maldonado showdown, the Russian MMA Union assigned the three judges who would be responsible for the scorecards in the main event: Evgeny Gribkov, Alexey Gorokhov, and Maria Makhmutova.

The announcement came as a surprise to many within the industry. The three officials were Russian natives for a contest that pitted a Russian against a Brazilian fighter. The shocking elements was that the Russian MMA Union was actually headed by Fedor himself. The legendary fighter is the unanimously voted president of the association several years prior and still maintained that role behind the scenes.

While reports suggested that Fedor had surrendered his position as president when he decided to return to professional competition in 2015, that was certainly not the case. Fedor was present at the MMA Championship of Russia, which took place in Orenburg. A Russian MMA Union press release on the event clearly referred to Fedor as the “President of the Union of Russian MMA.”

Though this does not necessarily suggest that Fedor handpicked the officials himself, it does accentuate the conflict of interest involved in that main event. The referee and judges were assigned by the same organization that Fedor is in charge of – the only MMA federation certified by the Ministry of Sports in Russia.

FedorEmelianenkoFabioMaldonado

Let’s not pretend this fight was not murky to begin with, as Fabio himself claimed he’d be doing steroids for his bout with Fedor, with no drug testing regime in place, before retracting his comments as ‘a joke.’ But that’s by the by, many feel Maldonado was robbed and, although he said he wouldn’t appeal the loss during the post fight presser, the Brazilian’s team confirmed to MMAFighting.com they would in fact look to have the result overturned:

We’re very happy with Fabio’s performance, he made everything right inside the cage. One of our main goals was to show the world the fighter he truly is and what he can do when he is 100% focused, and we did that. But we went there focused on winning and we feel like the judges took that away from us. The promoters didn’t agree with the result and most of the fighters who were there also think the result was strange.

Round 1 was clearly a 10-8 for us, Round 2 Fedor got a close 10-9 and round 3 was very close but we think Maldonado got the better shots. It was a least a draw, and we will appeal to Russian MMA Union to review this result.

An obvious conflict of interests is present here, whether or not the fix was in, this fight’s result and officiating needs to be looked at. The only problem is that Maldonado will appeal to the very Russian MMA Union that’s headed by Fedor Emelianenko himself, so don’t expect much change in this result.

We’ll keep you updated on this story as more news comes in.

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