Analysis on Tito Ortiz vs Fedor Emelianenko fight possibility

There have been rumors circulating about the Tito Ortiz vs Fedor Emelianenko fight. According to these rumors, the announcement will come right after the Tito's last fight, which is supposed to be against Lyoto Machida in May on UFC 84. Is there any basis for that rumor?

What else do we know about Tito Ortiz's situation with the UFC except the contract issues? Not much. We know that Tito has a long time conflict with the UFC and Dana White. I don't want to go into details about the whole relationship - it's too complex to tell about in one single post. The relationship is tense - that's basically all we need to know.

Renato "Babalu" Sobral has recently stated in an interview that Tito Ortiz has withdrawn from his fight against Lyoto Machida. The big question here is, is Renato Sobral a reliable source? We really don't know. We only know that Tito didn't want this fight since (according to Ortiz) "Lyoto Machida isn't a big name which would bring much money and Tito is just way too good for him." I highly doubt this. Machida is a very good fighter and he will cause a lot of problems to anybody in a light heavyweight division. Tito has a history of ducking opposition (like Chuck Liddell) and I don't even doubt that Tito doesn't want to fight Lyoto in his last UFC fight, with a significant chance of losing. The question is, whether Tito is able to do something to it. The correct answer is: it doesn't matter. We are talking about the possibility of Tito vs Fedor fight, and not about Ortiz's and Machida's fight.

Tito Ortiz vs Chuck Liddell

I don't have any real information on that so we need to think logically. In order to figure out the Fedor Emelianenko vs Tito Ortiz fight, we need to think about two sides: Tito's and Fedor's/M-1 Global's.

Would M-1 Global want and be able to make a Tito Ortiz fight? It's well known that Tito is a star and can draw a lot of viewers. This information is confirmed by the interesting chart from Google Trends, which shows that Tito is even more popular than Randy Couture. Tito is an American PPV machine and he is a huge star. He would be a great asset for M-1 Global, even though I doubt they can promote him so well, that he would be worth all that money he will request. It doesn't seem to be a big problem, though: M-1 Global seems to have money and Tito would definitely put M-1 Global's name on American MMA map. Therefore we can conclude that since Fedor is M-1 Global's asset, he will do whatever he will be asked to and will fight Tito if M-1 Global's team so decides. The only question is if Tito's fight is bad from the strategic point of view. And we know nothing specific about the M-1 Global's strategy for success.

What about Tito Ortiz's point of view on a fight against Fedor? There are a few things we need to remember about Tito. He is: greedy (loves money), smart, business savvy, has a history of ducking opponents (fights for money, not with the heart per se). He must understand that he has a big chance of losing if fighting Fedor Emelianenko. Losing to Fedor isn't a catastrophic thing, but a lost is a lost. Tito understands this and will take a fight only if he receives a big very check, which would cover this lost (if he indeed loses). It also helps if he isn't going to continue with his MMA career and will instead move to other activities (he currently participates in a Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice and is doing very well). By his move to M-1 Global he would probably also piss Dana White big time, which is always a nice thing. Nice thing, but it won't itself be a deciding factor for Tito's decision.

To conclude: I don't know the real situation, but thinking logically Tito Ortiz vs Fedor Emelianenko fight seems very unlikely to me, at least in a near future.

Additional M-1 Global Challenge 1 & 2 information

More information on the M-1 Global Challenge events.

As we already know, the first M-1 Global Challenge event will be held already this Sunday, on March 2nd in Netherlands. That time four teams will be attending: Russian Red Devil Sports Club will compete against the French Team Amossou and fighters from Holland/Netherlands will be fighting German athletes. While previously there was information about nine different competing teams (MMA clubs), right now it seems that there will be at least twelve of them. The new list of represented countries include USA, Japan, Russia, Finland, the Netherlands, France, Korea and Brazil. The change, compared to the previously available information, is that the new teams of USA, Japan, Korea and Brazil were included, but the Skandinavian, Polish and Spanish team got excluded. It will be very interesting to see, who will be the trainer for these new teams. Will American team perhaps consist of Randy Couture as a trainer?

The trainer for the Russian team will be Fedor Emelianenko. He will also hold a seminar in Netherlands this week before the event. The seminar will be filmed by the professionals from the Jerry Millen team and there will be such great fighters as Ernesto Hoost (4x K-1 Grand Prix champion), Peter Aerts (3x K-1 Grand Prix champion), Remy Bonjasky (2x K-1 Grand Prix champion) and Gegard Mousasi, who will be fighting in an event himself.

Amar Suloev (23-7), Aleksander Emelianenko, Roman Zentsov in a promotional poster

There is also new information on the M-1 Global Challenge 2 event. It will be held in Saint-Petersburg, Russia on April 3rd. The competing team will be from Russia, Japan and Europe (whatever that means). The great news is that
three superfights are scheduled to take a place as well. Aleksander Emelianenko, Roman Zentsov and Amar Suloev will all fight in the event! There is no information on their opponents.

In total there are four M-1 Challenge events planned to take place in Europe, four in Russia and additional four of them will be held on Japanese and North American soil.

On RussianMMA.com updates

I'm travelling abroad and there will be no more updates this week. Sorry. :(

Videos from Fedor's participation in Russian President's Cup 2008 in Sambo

Here are a couple of videos of Fedor Emelianenko's bouts from the Russian President's Cup 2008 in Sambo.

Video of the semi-final Fedor vs Lee Sang Soo. Lee Sang Soo is the champion of the top Korean MMA organization Spirit MC. In the past he had experience fighting both Aleksander Emelianenko and Roman Zentsov. His fight against Aleks (30 November 2007) can be seen here.

Below is a video of Fedor's final fight against Bulgarian Blagoy Ivanov. If you want to argue how weak Fedor looks and ponder on the reasons why he wasn't as dominant as we have seen him before, then keep in mind that he had a severe flu and even considered withdrawing from the competition.

Rumor: Crisis in M-1 Global; Monte Cox wants Vadim Finkelstein out by the buyout

Mohammed Osman, the active reader and commenter of RussianMMA.com , has wrote me an e-mail giving some great information to ponder. Here is his message.

On today's Sherdog Radio, Savage Dog Show, they mentioned Monte Cox having difficulties working with the Russian managers and possibly looking to head a group to buy out the organization.

Have you guys heard of any trouble within the organization? M1's issues with Bodog are documented. On that note, why has Bodog decided to go after the Russian market?

What would a group wanting to buy out M1 get? What assets does this org have other than Fedor?

Wouldn't getting rid of the Russian element from management also mean letting go of Fedor too?

Thought this was an interesting comment to make on the air, especially when there hasn't been anything public to warrant it.

Emailing with MMAPayout's Adam Swift, he says that in fact there has been many problems between the Russian and American sides of management, 'the Russians do whatever they want.' Adam also has placed Monte Cox's group's offer at $15 million. He's very negative on M-1's business outlook and questions whether the organization will make it out of 2008.

This is my guess: $15 million is too high for an organization that has such few assets and no profits. I'd say a much smaller offer will be made to pay Vadim Finkelstein a severance package to leave as President, but stay on as Fedor's representative. This way Fedor stays on board but Monte Cox gets the bulk of the managerial power. If there really is problems in the organization, this makes sense to me.

Since I'm supposed to be some kind of expert here, you probably want to hear my take on this whole situation. :) I don't have any real information (about the alleged crisis), so my thoughts will not have solid (insider's info or similar) ground. But I still have them. :)

First of all about Bodog. Organizations usually make money from sponsors, PPV (and other TV deals) and from sold tickets. Bodog isn't a big promotion, so it doesn't have a solid and substantial fan base, who would buy PPVs (they managed to sell only 13,000 PPVs for the last year's April event with Lindland and Fedor!) and therefore drag some sponsors in. They aren't big and interesting enough to get enough money from American ticket sells either. Their decision? To make as many events in Russia, where you don't have a PPV culture, but where there are a lot of people willing to pay big money to see Russian against Americans/Europeans (look at the names of the Bodog's Russian shows: "BodogFIGHT - USA vs. Russia", "BodogFIGHT - Russia vs. The World"). And since MMA knowledge among the Russian people isn't exactly there, Bodog can bring some cheap fighters in and get some good money off it. I don't know what Bodog's long term strategy is: they may have been using Russia as a playing ground for their experiments, from where to start their expansion, or they may just want to treat Russia as a separate market and to rip as much money as possible. Regardless of the strategy, their current way of behaving seems to work. They behaved as jerks toward Vadim Finkelstein and Russian M-1 during and after the already mentioned April's event, which was largely organized by M-1 and Vadim, which means that Finkelstein won't help them anymore, but it doesn't seem to bother Bodog.

The thing about whole MMA business is that regular fans know nothing about it. Everything seems to be clean from the outside, but in reality there is a lot of politics, lies, false promises, illegal contracts and other signs of the competitive business with the money involved. An excellent demonstration of how little we really know, was given not a long ago by Bas Boon, a famous manager of Dutch Golden Glory club. We have to always remember that there is a lot of money involved and neither of the players are saints - nor Monte nor some hypothetical "Russian managers" (plural!). Another factor in the game is the original investor. There have been a lot of rumors circulating about the real investor (since tiny and suspicious firms like Garlin and Sibling are just not it), a secret is still not revealed...

If the amount of money is correct, then it means that... Well, it doesn't mean anything, actually. It might be a small sum, a huge or a realistic one, all depending on what Monte Cox and Co get in return. It's impossible to make any predictions (that is, even is the alleged story about the crisis and the $15M is correct). The only thing that the money can tell us is that the prediction of "whether the organization will make it out of 2008" can become true only if all players decide to leave the game. I can't see it happen otherwise.

I mean, Monte Cox has bragged about a "$200 million start-up budget", which will easily be enough for a few years (if they use the money and not simply steal it).

It's business, where everything is possible, but in any case I personally don't see how Monte Cox could get rid of Vadim Finkelstein (and Dutch managers like Apy Echteld) and not to suffer big time. The whole point of M-1 Global is to have a truly global organization, which would behave well and cooperate with other promotions. Finkelstein's team's expertise is vital for the success of M-1 Global. The same goes with Dutch managers. So the only way I see them leaving is if Monte desides that M-1 Global shouldn't be global, but it should instead concentrate on local American market. I don't see Monte Cox doing something like this, because it will make "new revised M-1 Global" lose all its advantages and become one of the American promotions among many.

The introduction (well, almost; at least the introduction of the promotion video) of the Fighting Fedor - new MMA reality TV show also seems to confirm my personal belief and tells us that everything is pretty much going like it is supposed to.

But at the end the time will tell who was right...

Results from President's Cup, Russian Sambo competition

The President's Cup Sambo competition is over and here is the description of the event along with the results.

The President's Cup was created only a few years ago by the Russian President Vladimir Putin, the black-belt judoka himself. It was made to promote the competition among Sambo schools from different countries as well as to work as a tool of cooperation and friendship. The idea is to figure out, which country has the strongest Sambo team. The strongest team gets the President's Cup.

There are two category in the competition. One is Sport Sambo, which resembles Japanese Martial Art of Judo, but of course has differences as well. Sport Sambo is the basis for all other types of Sambo, including the Combat Sambo, the second Sambo category, where Fedor Emelianenko participated. You can punch and kick in Combat Sambo, unlike in Sport Sambo, and Combat Sambo is the Mixed Martial Arts per se.

The rules of the President's Cup are simple: there are nine weight categories in Sport Sambo and two weight categories in Combat Sambo. Only one participant in each weight class is allowed from each country. The country with the best overall result gets the trophy.

Russian Sport Sambo team
The results were just amazing, considering that the strongest Sambo participants around the globe were invited! Of nine Sport Sambo weight classes, seven were won by the Russian fighters (other two went to Armenia and Mongolia)! Of two weight classes in Combat Sambo, one was won by the Russian (another was won by the Ukranian Aleksander Kolomiec). The Russian winner of the Combat Sambo was unsurprisingly Fedor Emelianenko.

Fedor had three bouts. In the first one, the opponent got three warnings and was removed from the floor-mat. Second bout, where Fedor fought Korean Combat Sambo fighter was stopped for the "obvious dominance". The third and final was won by points. The Bulgarian Combat Sambo fighter managed to take a point in the final from Fedor Emelianenko.

No wonder that after many years of this kind of training Fedor knows how to land (see Fedor Emelianenko vs. Kevin Randleman)
The final results (of 15 participating contries) are:

1. Russia
   
2. Grusia (Georgia)
   
3. Ukraine
   
4. Mongolia
   
5. Azerbaijan
   
6. Bulgaria

© Sambo.ru Minakov Vitaly (the winner in Sport Sambo +100kg category) raises the President's Cup as a sign of victory

Fighting Fedor - new MMA reality TV show

The official site of M-1 has published a video of their new project called Fighting Fedor, which will be a reality show where 16 fighters will be flown to Saint-Petersburg to train in the Red Devil Sports Club and fight each other. The winner will get a chance to face Fedor Emelianenko. Here is the video.

It is a good idea. Sort of...

It's definitely a good thing from the promotion and marketing perspective. Thus people will see the fighters as well as Fedor (he will be undoubtedly hyped all the way during the show). It will make viewers sympathize fighters and will draw a lot of attention.

Well, "a lot of attention" in case they make it to a decent TV channel. It might of course be HDNet, which isn't a bad thing (it's better than nothing, right), but it's better be some bigger channel. Now the moment of truth comes in. M-1 Global was talking months ago about a good TV deal. They actually promised to tell more information about it a few weeks after the press-conference, which was in late October! They haven't told us anything, which on one hand can suggest about the problems and on another, about the will to make an announcement at a right time. With this new Fighting Fedor MMA reality show, it's time to make an announcement. It's now or never.

Will M-1 Global be able to pull off the contract with some huge American TV channel like HBO, ESPN or NBC/FOX/etc? Were they right in their predictions to get an excellent TV deal and were wrong only about the timing? Or were their hopes and predictions completely wrong and they are just a bunch of optimistic losers, who wish a lot without actually achieving much? We will know pretty soon...

Another question is, when will this show be aired? I might be wrong with this, but looking at the video footage, it makes me think that this whole show is already being shot (at least a part of it). But if there are indeed 16 good fighters in the show, and taking to the account the amount of other people involved (family, friends, trainers, shooting and organization team) it's pretty amazing that we haven't heard anything about this show before. I think there are only two explanations. One being - the show isn't shot yet. Another - there aren't any good top fighters involved. I mean the fighters who would have steady and sizeable fan base and whose doings are interesting to other people to hear.

If the latter is true, then there is little sense in the whole show from the fans and MMA sports perspective. It doesn't make any good to see Fedor destroying some heavyweight newbie. Granted, there can be some great guy with a good and solid MMA record, who will improve during the training and will prove to everybody that he is much better than what people used to think. But it still doesn't make him close enough to the skill set of Fedor.

The final big question is when will the final fight against Fedor be? Is it possible that is will already be on the first M-1 Global show in Chicago in April/May? If (big if!) they are already shooting the show, it might be possible. This would at least explain why the M-1 Global's first real show has been postponed a few times already.

As you can see, this show is a great idea from the marketing perspective, but we can't be sure about the advantages and disadvantages from the view of MMA community until we hear more details. I guess we will soon find out.

Or maybe I'm just being too analytical and we will see fighters like Ben Rothwell and Jeff Monson competing to get a chance to fight Fedor Emelianenko. Not likely to happen, but who knows!.. :)

Videos from Russian Combat Sambo Championship 2008

New high quality videos from the recent Russian Combat Sambo Championship 2008.

Fedor Emelianenko's (red jacket) fights

• Video of 1/4
• Video of 1/2
• Video of final fight: Fedor Emelianenko vs. Stanislav Shushko

Other fights.

• Aleksander Kosarev vs. Stanislav Shushko. Aleksander Kosarev (red jacket) is from the same club as Fedor (city of Belgorod) and he also fought in the same weight category (absolute weight). It was his first experience in a competition of this level, but he managed to do pretty well. He won the first bout by knock-out. In his second fight, he faced Stanislav Shushko. He was winning the fight with the points 5-0, but then made a mistake and fell down, which caused (clear victory comes if the opponent fell down completely on his back after a strike) a victory for Shushko, who faced Fedor Emelianenko in the final. Aleksander Kosarev had two more fights that day: first was won by another knock-out and in the second one, the opponent couldn't participate because of the injury. Thus Aleksander Kosarev won bronze! An excellent result for the debutant!
• Mikhail Zayac vs Vyacheslav Vasilevsky. Weight category -90kg. Final match. Mikhail Zayac from Red Devil Sports Club won gold.

First M-1 Global Challenge event

M1mixfight.com published a new information about the next M-1 Global Challenge event. The first event is scheduled to take place in Holland (Topsportcentrum in Almere) already on March 2nd. The event will have four teams (Russia, France, Holland, Germany) with one fighter in each weight class will be competing against an athlete from another country.

M-1 Global is launching a new project - M-1 Challenge that will show the best teams all over the world battle it out against each each other. The events will take place in different countries. Each team will consist of 5 MMA-fighters competing in the following weight categories: 70kg (154,3lb), 76kg (167,6lb), 84kg (185,2lb), 93kg (205lb), +93kg (+205lb)

Teams

Based on the information from the Dutch MMA sites the teams (and their respective trainers) from the following countries will be represented by:

• Russia - Fedor Emelianenko
  
• Finland - Petteri Maunu
  
• Spain - Alexandro Iglesias
  
• Germany - Human Niklasmak
  
• Poland - Maciej Kawulski
  
• Skandinavia - Marco Leistens
  
• France - Bertrand Amoussou
  
• Holland will be represented by 2 teams under Remco Pardoel and Bob Schrijber.

Muay Thai

Anuwat Kaewsamrit vs TBA
Saenchai Sor Kingstar vs Rachid Bellaini
Samranchai Penang vs Menno Dijkstra
Andy Souwer vs Yodsaenklai Fairtex
Germaine de Randamie vs Maria Verheijen
Ali Gunyar vs Farid Villaume

MMA

M-1 Team Challenge Russia (Red Devil Sports Club) vs France (Team Amossou)

-70kg Mikhail Malutin - Bendy Casimir
-76kg Erik Oganov - Mohamed Khacha
-84kg Dmitri Samoilov - Karl Amassou
-93kg Mikhail Zayats - Christophe Daffreville
+93 Kirill Sidelnikov - Martin Soltisyk

M-1 Team Challenge Holland vs Germany

-65kg: Jordy Peute vs Robert Scott Westermann
-73kg: Romano de los Reyes vs Franco de Leonardis
-83kg: Jason Jones vs Daniel Weichel
-93kg: Gegard Mousasi vs Jacoub Ünül
+93kg: Jessie Gibbs vs Thorsten Kronz

MMA Single Bouts

Brian Lo-A-Njoe vs Sergey Bytchkov
Dave Dalgliesh vs Kamil Uygun
Oktay Karatas vs Furdjel de Windt

Interview with Enson Inoue; talks about Pride, UFC and Japan

FCFighter News posted about a sanctioned MMA promotion in Sweden called Zone FC. PRIDE, Shooto and UFC veteran, Enson Inoue (11-8) was on hand as a ring announcer. He fielded some questions from the press. Most interesting was this:

What impact has the end of Pride had on MMA in Japan?
“It depends where you are looking. If you are standing in the USA it’s a good thing because all the Pride fighters went to the UFC. If you’re in Japan, it’s a bad thing because it almost killed Mixed Martial Arts in Japan. What’s happening now in Japan is K-1 is taking over the whole martial arts scene. Hero’s is going to be changed to another name, the Pride staff are going to take over and Mixed Martial Arts is still going to be alive, there will be big purses, everything will be the same. Because of the name change and the so-called death of Pride, the underworld problems that they had are now buried so they’ll still have the same staff and it will be run under K-1, just the president Sakakibara is out. He’s now racing cars or something.”

Josh Barnett's interview. Talks about Aleks Emelianenko and Hidehiko Yoshida

World Victory Road (WVR) has confirmed that Japanese star Hidehiko Yoshida will meet Josh Barnett in the main event of the promotion's March 5 debut card at Yoyogi National Gymnasium No. 1 in Tokyo, Japan. It was previously expected that the Barcelona Games judo gold medalist would meet star grappler Roger Gracie in the marquee fight for the Sengoku card. Barnett last MMA fight was on NYE 2006, when he lost an unanimous decision to now-UFC champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in their rematch. He has been a much sought free agent, who is considered to be one of few people (additionally to Randy Couture), that could cause Fedor Emelianenko some problems.

Because of that, there were a lot of rumors speculating on when Josh will be back fighting and who his opponent will be. The last rumor being the possibility of a rematch against Aleksander Emelianenko. That wasn't even a rumor, because it was posted on Aleksander's web page and it's as much official as it gets. The news being that the negotiations are going on, but that his opponent will probably be Josh Barnett.

But let's look at what Josh Barnett himself has to say about his fight for World Victory Road against Hidehiko Yoshida and this rumor about the Aleksander Emelianenko bout.

Question: Your first fight since 12/06...Yoshida; It seems like a great fight for your return as far as good competition and a chance to gauge yourself. What do you expect from your opponent and yourself in this fight?

Josh Barnett: It's a great fight for the Japanese fans and the organization. I think it will really draw them in and I’m very happy to to have the chance to compete against someone like Yoshida-san. He’s a good guy and a good fighter. I trained with him many times and always found him to be a strong fighter. I thnk he'll want to keep this fight on the ground but I couldn't care less about where we go as long as the crowd loves it.

© joshbarnett.tv Josh Barnett vs Aleksander Emelianenko. May 2006. After one 10 min round Aleksander gassed and Barnett submitted (keylock) him at 1:57 of the second round.

Question: Alot of news sources were saying you would be fighting Aleks again. If you had your choice and a promotion put the deal together, would you be fighting Aleks or Fedor Emelianenko?

Josh Barnett: No one offered me a fight against Aleksander in April and I don’t know how the rumor got started. I know he wants to rematch, which I’m fine with, but nothing’s been proposed by any promoters yet. Anyone who wants to be the best has to fight the best, but my career, and Fedor's too, is not based on us chasing each other down. If it’s meant to be, it will happen. He is a great fighter and anyone would be honored to fight him.

So no one even offered him a fight against Aleksander? I would think that Josh Barnett would be the person to know. I can see only two explanations: either Aleks's (per se M-1) web site is lying or it's Josh Barnett who isn't talking a truth. I could understand the latter (for marketing purposes), but he had no point in saying that nobody even proposed that fight - he could have just said that they were talking, but nothing is certain yet. But if it was M-1 which was lying, then the big question is "Why?"! And quite frankly I don't have a clue...

Interview with MMA, Pride and kickboxing legend Igor Vovchanchyn

Bogdan Khmelnitskiy at a MMA forum (Russian) met with the Ukranian Mixed Martial Arts (48-10-1) and kickboxing (58-2) legend Igor Vovchanchyn and asked a few questions. Here is the translation of that interview.

Question: How did you do in school? Was there a lot of fighting in your childhood? When did you go in for sport?
Igor Vovchanchyn: I did OK in my studies. Fought a lot. Beat everybody up. I was naughty, a bit of a hooligan! (smiling) We had a track and field athletics section in the school, so I joined. I trained there for five years and was the fastest runner. And then I was invited to join a boxing section, where I started my training under the trainer Oleg Ermakov. Then eventually I was invited to join kickboxing: they were looking for a heavier guy. I agreed to. Was swinging my legs already during the training.

Question: During the Warrior`s honour 1 tournament (10.1995), Andrey Besedin managed to quickly submit you. But already a few month later in the Absolute Fighting World Championship 1 tournament, you showed a good ground game defence.
Igor Vovchanchyn: Well, after that loss, I went to Subbotin to wrestle. And wrestled 1.5-2 hours a day. That's how I learned.

Question: Tell about your training. How much different it became from the beginning of your mixed martial arts career to the moment when you were fully concentrated to your Pride fights?
Igor Vovchanchyn: IT was different of course. There was more ground (wrestling/grappling) aspect and I was training two times a day. In the morning I had striking exercises and cross-country running, in the evening wrestling and striking.

Question: What are you doing at the moment? Will you agree to return to a few fights if asked?
Igor Vovchanchyn: I am a businessman. I won't return. Sometimes I want to, but I'm already 35. And above all I have injuries. I can't punch with my right hand at all: I have three pins in the elbow. And additional one in the left. Soon I will go to the nose surgery because I can't breath in the usual manner. Therefore there is no sense of me coming back.

Igor Vovchanchyn highlight

Question: How do you comment the collapse of Pride?
Igor Vovchanchyn: (halting for a moment) Well, it's bad. Americans took everything over, but aren't paying much. Monopoly doesn't lead to a good stuff. It would be better if Pride was still alive.

Makes you think if MMA is really that much safer than boxing, as some claim... Fedor Emelianenko also had problems with his hand - he even had to go the a surgery. MMA fighters punch so hard that even their own bones can't take this kind of punishment. Fortunately they have gloves nowadays, unlike the "old good days" when Igor Vovchanchyn started fighting.

Fedor explained that his injury was first diagnosed following the Gary Goodridge fight back at Total Elimination in 2003, the diagnosis by the PRIDE medical team was incorrect at the time and healed incorrectly. In 2005 he undertook surgery following his bout with Zuluzinho having broken his Thumb Metacarpal.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira on the possibility of Fedor fight

In his recent open letter, Fedor said that he is ready to fight anybody, including Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. But what does Antonio Nogueira himself thinks about it? FiveOuncesOfPain.com found out.

I’ll be here. I have the belt. If he comes here, I am ready to face him,” said Nogueira.

And as an extra, here you can see Nogueira's post-fight (with Tim Sylvia press-conference.

Dana White interviewed by tkoxtreme.com

A short interview with UFC's Dana White. Interesting quote:

Question: Who are the stars of your sport and specifically, how do you address criticism that says Dana White puts himself before the fighters? That you in fact are the face of your company and not Chuck Liddell or Georges St. Pierre?
Dana White: Let me tell you what, if you were with me and Chuck Liddell and we were walking down Times Square, people don’t even look at me and Chuck Liddell would get mobbed. Listen, I am the face of the company. I am the guy who is out there promoting and doing the TV deals and everything else. If people know who I am is that my fault? I don’t think I’m putting myself in front of the fighters at all.

Oh, yeah, he also says that Fedor ranked #5 in the Heavyweight division. I guess it's after Randy Couture (can't be sure any more, though), Fertittas and of course Dana White himself. :)

Joe Rogan speaks on Fedor and Dana White bullshit

Joe Rogan explains why he thinks Fedor Emelianenko is such a good fighter.

Video of Fedor Emelianenko vs Stanislav Shushko bout in the finals of Russian Combat Sambo Championship

m1mixfight.com has an amateur video from the Fedor Emelianenko vs Stanislav Shushko final bout at the Russian Combat Sambo Championship.

Fedor Emelianenko's open letter on Dana White statements and situation with Randy Couture

Fedor Emelianenko on Dana White's statements and situation with Randy ‘The Natural’ Couture.

Numerous times I have read mr. White’s statements on Internet concerning myself. In my opinion, allowing yourself to say those things is not a sign of a gentleman or a grown man at all! If he candidly wants to prove himself right then let my fight with Randy happen or let me face the reigning UFC champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. In the future I wouldn’t want to hear those unfounded statements in my address ever again.

My last fight in Japan proved once again that I’m ready to fight anybody with any size advantage, skill set or experience. I have fought and always want to fight the best athletes. The Randy fight is my goal number one right now, he’s a great fighter and this is a very unfortunate situation when too strict and one-sided UFC contracts don’t let this fight happen.

The whole world is eager to see me fight your champions, instead of listening to your press-conferences. I’m signed with M-1 Global and this promotion is ready to organize such fights under our banner or in co-promoted events.

I guess it's time when even such a calm person as Fedor is, starts to be fed up with all the shit Dana White speaks.

I would actually pay even more for the Dana White vs Fedor Emelianenko fight (MMA, boxing, whatever) than for the Fedor's fight against Tim Sylvia!

I wonder, what kind of response will Dana White give. I am sure it will be something like "Fedor shouldn't talk these kind of things. If he wanted to fight the best - he should have signed with the UFC. But now he is just ducking the competition".

Tim Sylvia cheating in Nogueira fight; speculates on leaving UFC, joining M-1 Global and fighting Fedor

A few news from Tim Sylvia, who lost to Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira in his last match on UFC 81 last Saturday. According to Nogueira's trainer, Tim Sylvia Cheated.

Luiz Alves, the Muay Thai trainer for Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, was recently interviewed by the Brazilian news site tatame.com and has made some interesting remarks concerning “Big Nog’s” recent victory over Tim Sylvia. Alvez made the claim during his interview that “the Americans” were using baby cream which would not become slippery until it came in contact with sweat.

His claims have much point because Antonio Nogueira won the fight and it doesn't look as an excuse.

Another Tim Sylvia news comes from the man himself (he wrote it on his forum).

i have one fight left on my contract i want to stay with the ufc but i am going to go were the money is right now Brock is making more m0ney then me that has to change i have a better name then him and i am a better fighter then him, i case u didn’t know my manager runs m1 so i have a pretty good in so we will see what happens in the next few months. [Icon Cheesygrin]

I would actually pay extra to see Fedor crushing Tim for all the stupid remarks he made. :)

Results from Russian Combat Sambo Championship (Fedor Emelianenko)

The first day of the Russian Combat Sambo Championship is over. Four fighters from the Red Devil Sports Club were fighting and each of them got the medal. Fedor Emelianenko was also fighting and unsurprisingly won gold. It took him three bouts and 1 minutes 55 seconds in total.

(...)
As expected, Fedor Emelianenko won pretty easily in all of the three battles. Worth mentioning! Hats off to the Russian sambo combatants as this time not a single opponent in the main brackets refused to face Fedor while it occured a couple time during the European and World Combat Sambo Championships a while ago.

© fedor.bel.ru Fedor Emelianenko between matches

In the first bout Fedor rushed with a flurry of strikes taking down the opponent and won via submission in 35 seconds. The second one lasted mere 10 seconds as Fedor broke the adversary's nose.

The final that saw Fedor facing off against Stanislav Shushko was not that rapid though. Stanislav tried to keep Fedor on a distance utilizing his height and reach advantage. However Fedor broke the distance thanks to a series of punches and secured clinch. Then he threw Stanislav down and kept him there long enough to earn some points. After fighters got back on the feet situation repeated - series of punches and a throw. The only difference there was that Fedor finished his aggressive attack with a submission. Bout duration: 1:10 min.
(...)

Read more at m1mixfight.com

Randy Couture speaks out on lawsuit

Some interesting quotes from the interview

(...)

“It’s unfortunate that things have kind of degraded to that point,” Randy Couture told MMAWeekly.com backstage at the Calgary, Alberta, Canada show.

The suit seeks damages “in excess of $10,000” for these infractions, but if the proceeding drags out in court, lawyers will ultimately win in Couture’s battle with Zuffa, LLC.

“I’m sure that’s part of their ploy, to force me to spend enough money that I’ll have to come back and fight for them, which isn’t the case,” Couture said as throngs of fans and officials clamored for his photo.

(...)

Zuffa also alleges that Couture’s statements on HDNet’s Dec. 15 broadcast of “Reckless” were in breach of his contract, and meant to “maximize the harm inflicted” on the company. Not surprisingly, Couture disagrees.

“They didn’t force me to breach of contract in any way,” he said. “I simply stated the position I’m in as far as fighting, which is to wait my fight contract out, find a way to make the Fedor fight happen myself.”

Meanwhile, Couture said the UFC has tried to retaliate against him and his fighters.

“Like trying to ban my clothing line, and things like that that don’t really hurt me, they just hurt the athletes that we sponsor,” Couture said. “We sponsor some 35 athletes with that clothing line, and give back to the sport in every way we can. We’re already in Nordstrom’s and Macy’s and all the big outlets, so it just takes away from money that the athletes are getting from their sponsorships. It’s kind of stupid.”

(...)

It's also funny to see how hard the UFC tries to avoid speaking or showing Randy Couture. For example he was in a corner of Tyson Griffin, but all the cameras successfully avoided showing him. :)

Fighters from Red Devil Sports Combat prepare for the Combat Sambo Championship

A video and photos from the Red Devil Sports Club training for the upcoming fights and Combat Sambo Championship. The Combat Sambo Championship will take place in Saint-Petersburg on February 7-8.

Dana White interviewed by The Sun

Dana White was interviewed by The Sun. Some interesting quotes.

Would you ever consider hosting an open weight GP tournament like there used to be in Pride or GP tournaments in different weight classes? - Kaleem Malik

Dana White: "No, never. For a start the commissions in the US would never allow it, and these things - they are so stupid anyway. I know it was all cool and crazy back in the early 1990s to do them but it was dumb and dangerous too.

"I have got this question a few times and I don’t get it – the best fighter never wins these dumb things anyway.

"The winner is some alternate, or whichever fighter got the most rest or didn’t pick up an injury – you never know for sure if the winner really deserved it because he’s the best fighter or because some stupid shit like that - which is all to do with luck and doesn’t prove who the best fighter is.

"Also, I think fighters try and pace themselves in the opening round of those tournaments to make sure they are fresh for the later rounds. Think about it - these things force guys to not give their best efforts so they can be fresh later!

"You watch the UFC fighters walking back to the dressing room after a great fight and they are not fresh! UFC fighters let it all hang out every time they fight."

(...)

Do you plan on cross-promoting bouts or even events on a large scale in the future? Most of the small organisations are cross-promoting to share talented fighters and put on larger events to compete with the UFC. - Carlo, Iowa

Dana White: "Why would I want to do shows with these promotions? I have the best fighters in the world all under contract. Why would I cross-promote with these organisations? They suck."

(...)

The scoring system in the UFC has always been questionable. As time goes on, it is becoming apparent that a change needs to be made - the Bisping/Hamill fight at UFC 75 being an obvious example. Can we expect any changes in the future? - Eric Smith, London

Dana White: "I hear you, Eric. I know exactly what you are saying. The 10-point must system was developed for boxing and it doesn’t fit mixed martial arts that well.

"But what you've got to understand is, unlike in the UK, the people who regulate sports over here – guys like the Nevada State Athletic Commission - are the government.

"These guys are part of the actual government of the state so doing something as huge as changing the whole system for scoring won’t happen just like that.

"And even if someone spent months putting together the perfect scoring system for MMA you know what? We’ll still have some fights where you see one guy winning and I see another.

"We will still get arguments and controversy, because when it goes to the scorecards it is about opinion and people have different opinions.

"But I do know exactly what you are saying, though."

Dana, why did you turn down M1's offer to let Fedor fight Randy in the UFC? Is there any chance Randy Couture will face Fedor in a UFC show, and if not, will we ever see 'The Natural' compete in the Octagon again? - Steve, Liverpool

Dana White: "I tried to make that fight for months but I’m not getting into some bullshit posturing. Fedor isn’t a real fighter, he’s a complete joke.

"He’s fighting middleweights and guys who have absolutely no business fighting – and he’s looking like shit doing it.

"It's 2008 and he hasn’t had a real fight since 2005. I don’t care about what he did in PRIDE years ago - he can’t live with anyone in the top five in the UFC and that’s why he’s not here.

"He’s not in the UFC because if he was he couldn’t avoid real competition like he’s been doing for years now.

"And Randy Couture knows all of that, believe me. Let me tell you - Chuck Liddell knocked Randy Couture out – out cold – twice and that’s why Randy retired. Chuck ended his career as a top light heavyweight and that’s why he retired.

"Then after being done and gone for a year he calls me on my cell phone saying Dana, I want to come back as a heavyweight and fight Tim Sylvia – can you make it happen?�

"We make that happen, we give Randy Couture that huge opportunity and now Randy Couture is refusing to give a fighter like Antonio Nogueira that exact same opportunity he was given. 'Captain America' needs to honour his contract and honour fighters like Nogueira. You would expect 'Captain America' should do the honourable thing."

There was a chance of sending questions and so I did: send a three freaking good questions, which didn't get in. I hate them all. :-)
I have no further comments. :)

Andrei Arlovski vs. Jake O'Brien on UFC 82

According to the UFC home page, Andrei Arlovski will be fighting on UFC 82 against Jake O'Brien. Now we can finally conclude that the rumor about Andrei's new opponent wasn't true.

Another thing is that this fight won't be in a main card! Can you imagine - the former UFC Heavyweight Champion may not even be broadcasted on PPV! The situation with the contract must be really screwed up for UFC to do something like this to one of their superstars...

Dana White interviewed after UFC 81

MrSunshineVegas interviewed Dana White after the UFC 81. He talks about the UFC 81 obviously, comments on a rumors about selling the Ultimate Fighting Championship, as well as calls Fedor Emelianenko a farce. Dana is once again just being himself.

MMA predictions for the year 2008

I know that it's already February, but I still want to make a few predictions for the year 2008. Of course, concerning the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) scene.

1. Year 2007 was a year of surprises because of different factors like the overly high hopes for the success of ex-Pride fighters in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). In 2007 factors will change, but the result will stay the same: expect more surprises. Some of these factors are
   • The introduction (to the wide audience) of a bunch of good "new" fighters from around the world via such ways as M-1 Global Challenge, The Ultimate Fighter, IFL's team format and talents from smaller promotions.
     
   • I don't know if Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira will win tonight, but in general I am waiting for the comeback of the old Pride fighters. That's right, I predict that the old Pride fighters (including Mirko Crocop!) will bounce back! And now, when only a few of MMA fans expect anything from them, they will start winning thus causing further surprises.
2. In 2007 the team concept of the International Fight League (IFL) wasn't a success. This will somewhat change in the year 2008. No, they will not get the same coverage as a typical baseball or NFL team, but the difference in popularity between 2007 and 2008 will be very noticeable. How do you measure it? You could look at the amount of forum (like on Sherdog.com) discussions about the IFL. Unfortunately their search isn't working properly so we can't compare specific numbers. But we can take the number of web pages found by Google (637,000 for ifl mma (1,330,000 on Feb 8th, wtf?..) ) and compare it with a number one year ahead.
   
3. Expect more cooperation between different MMA organizations. Almost all other organizations will cooperate among each other except Zuffa's promotions like the UFC and WEC. Other promotions will start getting closer to the UFC, but UFC will still be the ultimate number one. Other promotions not only include American companies, but the foreign (Dutch, Japanese, German, Russian) and Global companies as well.
   
4. In the year 2007 it was a common knowledge that the UFC has the best fighters in the world, especially in heavyweight and light heavyweight divisions. This is such a "common knowledge" that it's impossible to argue about on forums. During the whole year of 2008, MMA/UFC fans will slowly realize that there is life outside the UFC as well. At the end of the year, the statement "UFC has almost all the best fighters in X weight division and one have to fight in the UFC to have competitive bouts and to considered a legit top fighter" will not receive a clear acceptance at all. There will even be a significant amount of people who will argue that the UFC's weight division X is weaker than the same division in another MMA organization.
   
5. HDNet will grow a lot and will put significant effort in their MMA section. HDNet will be a key player (kinda in a role of Ambassador of Good Will) in the cooperation between different MMA promotions.
   
6. I predict that Inside MMA (HDNet) will become even more respected TV Mixed Martial Arts program. The respect will not help to get a permission from the UFC to use the tapes from the UFC events, though. :) At least I don't see this happening in the first half of 2008. Maybe it will finally happen at the of 2008, but I highly doubt this as well.
   
7. HDNet Fights will become one of the top MMA organizations. Mark my words and expect some great fights (perhaps including some Russian fighters?) coming from the HDNet Fights promotion in specific and on HDNet channel in general (from other promotions).
   
8. At least one MMA organization will get a deal with one of the national TV channels in the USA (there might be more than one organization and more than one channel). I predict that HBO will also sign a deal with one of the Mixed Martial Arts organizations.
   
9. Despite the increase in cooperation, I predict that at least one of the current top MMA organizations will either die, closely unite with another organization or be sold.
   
10. I predict that we will see some major players (show wrestling, boxing) coming to the MMA scene. It might happen through a buyout.
    
11. We will see the interesting PR campaign to promote Fedor Emelianenko among American people. Expect things like interviews (Internet, newspapers, TV), different programs (the UFC All Access type of programs), a lot of happenings which will keep news sites busy and people informed all the time about the existence of Fedor (and Randy Couture), etc. Many will see, to their own surprise, that the older Emelianenko speaks pretty decent English. This is one of many parts to get Fedor Emelianenko humanized among Americans. I predict that we will see a lot of beautiful Russian female translators as well. :)
    
12. I believe that Fedor Emelianenko vs Randy Couture fight will happen already at the end of 2008. Zuffa will try their best to win a court fights, but will not succeed. This fight, while not highly probably, can actually happen in the UFC. Everything depends on how well people from M-1 Global will be able to market Fedor and his future fight against Couture (which will be promoted as the fight of the century or alike). UFC may take part in it if the PR promotion will be very successful and will allow Zuffa to make a lot of money. If the campaign will be only successful, UFC will not take a bite. They will prefer not to make additional profit, but to keep M-1 Global away from the view of the current UFC's fans.
    
13. European market will start growing, but the noticeable growth will be limited to only a few countries (like Netherlands, England, Germany and perhaps France).
    
14. American market will pretty much stay the same - with UFC as a number one MMA organization, but with more competition from other in some cases allied promotions. More and more states will lift the ban for MMA and start regulating them. More and more articles will be published in non-MMA press, although the growth will be moderate and you still won't see the results of the recent UFC in your morning newspaper.
    
15. M-1 Global will organize three to four global events (local events not counting). That's not much, but these will be very big and high quality shows. In the sense of marketing, I predict that at least first event (the American one) will be free of charge. There are some chances that the event at the end of the year will turn profitable, but the overall cash balance will definitely be negative in any case. Expect more stupid lies and shifted schedules. It will only be caused because of the inexperience of the staff, but it will make MMA fans go totally crazy. :) M-1 Global will not win the battle against UFC; they will try not to fight them at all. This is smart because M-1 Global will have a different format, which can be better compared to the organization of "US Open" in tennis. Therefore it will not directly compete with a full time promotions with their politics of exclusive fighters.
    
16. First there were books. Then there were movies. Then computer and console games (like GTA) as well as show wrestling (like WWE). I believe that this same trend will make a turn to the Mixed Martial Arts scene with the UFC in particular danger. As some of you may have guessed, I am talking about the "Ultimate Explanation for the Source of All Evil". I predict some stories and legal suits from stupid government officials and parents who will blame UFC for causing their children/citizens to kill or injure themselves or others.
    
17. Finally, RussianMMA.com site will grow a lot and the problems with credibility and the small amount of my own materials will be pretty much gone. RussianMMA.com forum will become the number one place for intellectual discussions around global MMA overall and Russian fighters in specific. :)

As you can see, if my predictions are correct, the year will be very interesting and exciting. The interesting thing is that if my predictions are wrong, the year will be even more exciting because of the unpredictability!.. :)

What kind of predictions do you guys make? Do you agree with my predictions? Have anything to add? Make a comment!