With the success that 40-year old Dan Henderson (27-8) had this past weekend capturing the Strikeforce light heavyweight title, the next question was who would be next for the former PRIDE champ?
Realistically, meeting the winner of the upcoming Gegard Mousasi vs. Mike Kyle makes sense, but after his victory over Rafael “Feijão” Cavalcante this past […]
With the success that 40-year old Dan Henderson (27-8) had this past weekend capturing the Strikeforce light heavyweight title, the next question was who would be next for the former PRIDE champ?
Realistically, meeting the winner of the upcoming Gegard Mousasi vs. Mike Kyle makes sense, but after his victory over Rafael “Feijão” Cavalcante this past weekend, Henderson said he’d be open to meeting Fedor Emelienanko (32-3, 1NC) if he was offered the fight.
Henderson spoke to MMAjunkie.com and had this to say about a possible matchup. “Obviously, he’s still one of the top guys out there in the world, and it would be a huge challenge. It would interest me to go up.”
Now it appears that the Russian’s camp is interested in the idea of meeting Henderson, as a source told FightersOnlyMagazine.co.uk that Fedor “is giving serious consideration to the prospect of fighting newly crowned Dan Henderson at 205 pounds.”
Fedor lost for the third time in his career, suffering a second round TKO loss to Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva in the opening quarterfinal match of the Strikeforce heavyweight Grand Prix Tournament. Silva dominated the Russian in the second, bloodying Fedor’s right eye so bad that the doctors were forced to call the fight for the Russian’s own safety.
A move to light heavyweight would certainly make sense in the eyes of many fans and critics, as Fedor remains on the small side for heavyweights, weighing at 230 lbs against “Bigfoot” Silva, who himself weighed in at 264 lbs, but reportedly walks around anywhere from 280-290 lbs.
It would be the first time that the Russian would have to cut weight for a fight as he’s always fought as a heavyweight, so it would not be surprising to see a request from M-1 Global for acatchweight bout of 210 or 215 lbs being made.
Offering the light heavyweight title to Fedor doesn’t make much sense on paper, but with a shallow 205 lb division, it would certainly make things much more entertaining for Strikeforce and for fans.
Press Release – NEW YORK (Feb. 24, 2011) – SHOWTIME Sports and M-1 GLOBAL announced today an upcoming mixed martial arts (MMA) event entitled M-1 Challenge: Damkovsky vs. Figueroa featuring two M-1 GLOBAL title fights. The bouts will air LIVE on SHOWTIME on Friday, March 25 at 11 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast).
Artiom […]
Press Release – NEW YORK (Feb. 24, 2011) – SHOWTIME Sports and M-1 GLOBAL announced today an upcoming mixed martial arts (MMA) event entitled M-1 Challenge: Damkovsky vs. Figueroa featuring two M-1 GLOBAL title fights. The bouts will air LIVE on SHOWTIME on Friday, March 25 at 11 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast).
Artiom Damkovsky will defend his M-1 Challenge Lightweight (155 lbs.) championship against Jose Figueroa, while Tyson Jeffries and Magomed Sultanakhmedov will battle for the vacant M-1 Challenge Middleweight (185 lbs.) belt from Constant Center in Norfolk, Va.
In other action, Alexander Sarnavskiy will take on Josh Bacallao in a lightweight scrap and Vinny Magalhaes will fight an opponent to be named in a light heavyweight (205 lbs.) matchup.
“I am extremely happy about the venture between M-1 Global and SHOWTIME. There is no better TV network for M-1 than SHOWTIME. And no better market to seriously compete in than the U.S.,” said Vadim Finkelchtein, co-founder of M-1 GLOBAL.
“Our ability to televise quality boxing and MMA fights at the highest level has been aided tremendously by our commitment to showcasing prospects and lesser known international stars on our feeder series like ShoBox: The New Generation and STRIKEFORCE Challengers,” said Ken Hershman, Executive Vice President and General Manager of SHOWTIME Sports. “M-1 Challenge events fit perfectly into that mold and will enhance our mixed martial arts offerings even further.”
Mauro Ranallo will call the action from ringside with Pat Miletich serving as analyst. The telecast will be produced by Chuck McKean and directed by Craig Farrell. The executive producer of SHOWTIME Sports is David Dinkins, Jr.
For information on SHOWTIME Sports programming, including exclusive behind-the-scenes video and photo galleries, complete telecast information and more, please go to the new SHOWTIME Sports website at http://www.sho.com/sports.
Last week a news article quoting Fedor Emelianenko’s Sambo coach, Vladimir Voronov, stated that he believed Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva’s camp employed ‘forbidden psychological technology‘ to help them win the fight.
Now Voronov has come out saying denying that he said anything of the sort in an audio interview posted at MixFight.ru. The interview with the […]
Last week a news article quoting Fedor Emelianenko’s Sambo coach, Vladimir Voronov, stated that he believed Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva’s camp employed ‘forbidden psychological technology‘ to help them win the fight.
Now Voronov has come out saying denying that he said anything of the sort in an audio interview posted at MixFight.ru. The interview with the Russian Sambo coach is in Russian, but LowKick.com posted a brief transcript of Voronov’s statement.
“I was really surprised by these reports. First of all, I never gave any interviews after the fight. We were on our way out of the airport, when a boy approached me asking about Fedor’s health. I answered that Fedor feels alright, and will continue to compete in MMA. So he said that it seemed like Fedor didn’t feel so good. I answered that maybe it only seems so, and maybe Fedor doesn’t feel so well (laughing). Then, by these two phrases this lad, who even didn’t say who he was, came to a conclusion that I was talking about some sort of hypnosis. It’s a total bullshit.”
M-1 Global Director of Operations Evgeni Kogan initially defended Voronov saying he was simply making a joke, and that the statement was “lost in translation” via Twitter (@evegnikogan). Which might give credit that the statement actually did happen, but then Kogan would later Tweet another statement that no interviews were given by M-1 upon arrival at the airport.
Voronov: the hypnosis article completely fabricated. No interviews given at all on arrival in Russia. Interview in MP3 on m-1global.com soon
Which is still curious as there were several fans and media on hand at the airport greeting the fighter and his entourage.
A few days ago I wrote a post saying that if Fedor Emelianenko wants to come back to fight again he’d need to reinvent himself, that it was his antiquated training practices that was holding him back. After a few reports surfaced concerning some of his coaches and people surrounding him I’m not so […]
A few days ago I wrote a post saying that if Fedor Emelianenko wants to come back to fight again he’d need to reinvent himself, that it was his antiquated training practices that was holding him back. After a few reports surfaced concerning some of his coaches and people surrounding him I’m not so sure I feel that way anymore.
I’m starting to lean toward having Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and the rest of the “A-Team” swoop into Story Oskal in Russia on some Black Ops mission, and whisk away Fedor and his family in order to get them out of the clutches of M-1 Global.
Taken individually over the past few days some of the stories were more interesting than anything, but now that Brent Brookhouse at BloodyElbow.com has put together a few of them and now I’m starting to get that bad “Oompa Loompa” feeling about the people surrounding the Russian fighter.
Earlier today we reported that one of Fedor’s coaches Vladimir Voronov was laying the blame for the loss to Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva over the use of “forbidden psychological technology.” Basically he was saying Silva’s camp used psychics to mess with Fedor’s head. Which is comedic on it’s own but you start adding to the oddity of the claim it just becomes disturbing.
Now M-1 Global Director of Operations Evgeni Kogan has come on Twitter (@evgenikogan) to say that Voronov was making a joke, but this was all refuted by a commenter at ValeTudo.ru.
In regards to Kogan’s “lost in translation tweet”, I can assure you guys, there is NOTHING lost in translation. That is exactly what Voronov said in Russian.
This sparked a BIG debate on all Russian MMA forums, cause people call him nuts now.
More that that, Kogan wasn’t even there when Voronov said it, he was in Holland, and Voronov was in the Moscow’s airport. M-1 is trying to put some damage control crap, but those are Voronov’s words, nothing was “lost” or misinterpreted.
Props to BloodyElbow.com again for the quote.
Then another coach, Alexander Michkov, this one spoke after the loss, comes out to imply that Silva must have been on steroids because he put on 10 KG (just over 22 lbs for those of you who can’t convert) after the weigh-ins.
Think about it, how can the normal human-being gain 10 kg in 24 hours? There is something fishy here.
Sorry to burst your bubble Michkov but I can give you two examples of fighters who dropped 20 lbs for their last fights, Vitor Belfort and Jake Shields, and those guys are middleweights. It’s probably nothing for “Bigfoot” to drop 20 lbs for a fight considering the man weights 280-290 lbs for a fight and likely walks around at 300-310 between fights.
Now I wish I had links to more of what I’ve read over the past few days but I don’t so I’ll just have to wing it.
Fedor is apparently now on Twitter, but it’s actually not him that posts the Tweets, it’s someone who posts in Russian for him. I don’t know about you but I definitely see a form of control here, you can’t even be sure that whats being posted is even what he said.
Now staying with that train of thought, there is some discrepancy between what Fedor said on the microphone after his loss to Silva, and what the translator told everyone in English. I don’t speak Russian so I don’t know but basically Fedor said he was retiring and the translator said he’d think about retiring.
This isn’t the first time her translations have come up suspect, and again I wish I could provide you with the links rather than simply rumor and conjecture. But I get the feeling that M-1 is paying her to clean up whatever Fedor has to say if it doesn’t coincide with M-1’s viewpoint.
Throw on top of all of this the games that M-1’s Vadim Finkelstein has been playing by renegotiating contracts, playing Strikeforce off of the UFC after the fall of Affliction, those clouds surrounding the promotion are starting to look very dark indeed.
Fedor has said many times that he just wants to fight whoever is put in front of him, while Vadim has come up with excuses for him not too until he’s squeezed the most out of whoever it is trying to put the fighter into the ring. It certainly seems that Fedor’s personal interests are being put on the back burner rather than in the drivers seat.
Overall it certainly appears that M-1 has seen their ‘Golden Goose’ lay it’s last Golden Egg but they can’t let that happen, they’ve got their own mma promotion to bolster, I’m certain a number of fancy do-dads to pay for, and a very large (and crazy it would appear) entourage to maintain.
I’m not sure how much is rumor and how much is truth but I don’t think anyone in the Western world will take M-1 Global serious any longer.
In one of the more interesting twists from this past weekends loss by Russian heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko, one of his coaches is blaming the use of “forbidden psychological technology” as part of the reason for the former PRIDE champions loss to Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva.
No really.
In a statement to LifeSports.ru (translated by Fighters Only) coach Vladimir […]
In one of the more interesting twists from this past weekends loss by Russian heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko, one of his coaches is blaming the use of “forbidden psychological technology” as part of the reason for the former PRIDE champions loss to Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva.
No really.
In a statement to LifeSports.ru (translated by Fighters Only) coach Vladimir Voronov is putting the blame on ‘illegal’ use of psychics by “Bigfoot’s” camp to gain an edge of the Russian fighter on Saturday nights Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Silva main event bout.
“We believe that forbidden psychological technology was used… It seems to us that not everything was right, and that certain technologies were used. Not ones that could be seen by the naked eye but psychological technologies that worked on both fighters at a distance.”
“That is why during the fight Fedor was just not like himself. It seemed very strange behaviour from Fedor. He stepped into the ring and did everything exactly the opposite of what we practiced before the fight. We were all shocked! Fedor had never previously done such a thing.
“Now nearly a week passes, everything settles, and we understand why all this happened.”
Now reading another article, this one involving former UFC champ Rashad Evans, he says the big Russian was distraught because his Priest didn’t show up on time.
Speaking on PRO MMA Radio (FightLine.com), Evans cited a source working in the Silva camp who informed him of the situation.
“They said that Fedor was all upset because his priest didn’t come in. You know, he always has a priest for every one of his fights, and the priest didn’t come in or came in late, and it really messed him up mentally.
“When he came out, he seemed to be showing more emotion than he normally does. Normally he has a straight face, but he looked like he was mad, not like the typical Fedor we see.”
Well one of these situations seems more plausible over the other but who knows what goes on in Fedor’s camp, they seem to want to keep him isolated from the rest of the world at times.
Oh well only one thing to do in a situation like this, “Who ya gonna call…”
Steve Cofield and Dave Cokin talk about Fedor Emelianenko’s recent loss to Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva last Saturday, coming to the defense of the Russian after many from many who are saying “The Last Emporer” was never that good.
Both media personalities talked on ESPN1100 in Las Vegas recently, saying the Russian was great in his time, […]
Steve Cofield and Dave Cokin talk about Fedor Emelianenko’s recent loss to Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva last Saturday, coming to the defense of the Russian after many from many who are saying “The Last Emporer” was never that good.
Both media personalities talked on ESPN1100 in Las Vegas recently, saying the Russian was great in his time, much like the great sportsmen of the past, but like them isn’t able to compete in the modern sports market.
If that’s the case, let’s eliminate all pre-1980 NFL offensive linemen from the NFL Hall of Fame. After all, those 250 pounders would get destroyed today in an era of 300-pound behemoths. Frankly, 6-foot-6 power NBA Hall of Fame power forward Dave DeBusschere sucked and Joe Louis wasn’t really a great heavyweight boxer. The guy fought most of his career between 195-205 pounds.
Other well known media personalities Dave Metzer and Bryan Alvarez discuss Fedor’s loss during the Wrestling Observer Radio program Sunday night, criticizing the Russian’s management for pushing Fedor to fight despite his thoughts of retirement.
The FightOpinion.com transcribed some of the comments between Metzer and Alvarez.
DAVE MELTZER: “What’s Vadim without Fedor?”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “Well, that’s the point. And then today when I read in the update today that people that actually spoke Russian, when they heard what Fedor said and then what Roseanne translated it was completely different or at least different in the sense…”
DAVE MELTZER: “It wasn’t completely different, but she lightened it. He was saying that he retired and she was saying that he was thinking of retiring.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “Yeah, let this poor damn guy retire! If he wants to retire, let him go…”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “I’m just reading the quotes, I don’t even know how he said it. But, you know… every quote was like, ‘oh, no, he’ll be back, in fact he may be an alternate’ and this and that. Just like, man, the guy made it clear he really doesn’t want to do this now and why would you throw a guy back in there who you’re forcing to, I don’t know.”
DAVE MELTZER: “Well, they’re not going to force him. I mean, you know… I mean at the end of the day, he can not fight.”
BRYAN ALVAREZ: “The Russians may force him.”
DAVE MELTZER: “The Russians may force him. That’s true. That’s true, which is really quite sad.”
With the announcement earlier today that Fedor would fight once again, it could very well be that his management has “talked” him into entering the cage again despite whatever misgivings he’s had.
I agree though, if Fedor wants to retire, let him retire because the “Golden Goose” has stopped producing Golden Eggs, the gravy train is over for M-1 time to show the world your not a one fighter promotion.
With the success that 40-year old Dan Henderson (27-8) had this past weekend capturing the Strikeforce light heavyweight title, the next question was who would be next for the former PRIDE champ?
