Fedor Emelianenko “Disappointed” in Josh Barnett Testing Positive, Prefers Brett Rogers as Replacement Opponent
Top-ranked heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko, whose original Affliction: Trilogy opponent Josh Barnett recently tested positive for steroids and was removed from the contest, took part in a press conference on Thursday in Moscow where he commented on the news:
“I feel disappointed about this situation. But I will fight anyone who Affliction puts in front of me. I know a lot of fans waited for this fight to happen and I am sorry for them. I can’t do much about it now but I am in good shape, my training has been good and continues to go well.”
Though he’s open to fighting anyone, M-1 Global’s Vadim Finkelchtein made it clear that they’d prefer a fight with heavyweight Brett Rogers, who is coming off a knockout of Andrei Arlovski, but would also accept a matchup with middleweight Vitor Belfort.
A replacement opponent is expected to be announced by the end of the day.
Tags: Fedor Emelianenko
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Rogers is still to green, IMO. He needs a few more fights before he faces off against top tier HWs. Also, his ground game is suspect as I haven’t seen it. If it’s slacking there is no way that he would have more than a puncher’s chance against Fedor right now. Maybe in a couple years when he develops his overall game more but as of right now, he isn’t ready.
There are no legit challengers to emilianenko. Not in affliction. Not in strikeforce.
put someone thats has a chance, not some random fighters that are like “oh ill fight him”.
who has a chance that’s not in the UFC, hasn’t just fought, or is a legit heavyweight?
Rogers green,, he has had more fights, less losses, and a much better ko record then lesner. It is not his fault that they make him keep fighting while brock is getting championship matches right after losses. Brock faught lost to a good fighter, faught a can, beat a old declining fighter who is dropping a waight class, then beats the guy he lost two while that guy is recovering from an injury…
Brock is green and just being hyped (as you can see from his matches from the start) to sell tickets just like Kimbo Slice was promoted and a big thing before everyone realized how sad he really was (and was turned on by his own organization. Who wants to be in the UFC they bad talk you the moment you leave. And can any one name 3 possible good UFC Heavyweight fighters, worth anything, who fedor has not already beat???? People keep acting like there are fighters in the UFC HW. Shows how little people know.
Mir, Carwin, Lesnar . . . . I could go on. Kongo, ol’ Couture. These are legit HWs and Im not even a Lesnar fan. U can’t tell everyone on here that a fight w/ any one of these UFC guys would be more interesting then w/ anyone else. Fedor wants competition, he knows where it’s at. Instead he wants Brett Rogers, Ha. Heres how this fight would go, Rogers comes out swinngin, Fedor takes him down, cuz Rogers ground skills are no where near Fedor’s level, and submits him. Fedor just wants to win, not fight the best.
the comparison between brock and kimbo begins and ends at the pre-fight hype they both garner. If Fedor wants to maintain his status as the best, he must fight the best. The best heavyweight division is in the UFC where there are more than 3 fighters who could give him a hell of a fight.
Dos Santos, Gonzaga, Couture, Carwin, Kongo Lesnar, Mir, Velasquez. Sure he can’t fight all those guys but the UFC does have the lions share of the elite heavyweights in MMA.
The only legit contender is Roger’s right now, its the only fight interesting on paper as well .. Rogers 5-0 on the big show and 10-0 for his career ,not 1 fight going pass the second round and all finished my strikes. The facts are that Rogers just knocked out Andrei Arlovski, and he’s a solid heavy weight.. not says Fedor hasn’t fought bigger. Rogers still is learning in alot of areas of the fight game but overall looks like a good test for Fedor none the less.
Thats pretty sad that Rogers the only legit contender. Affliction is doomed. Their days are numbered.
Opportunity of a lifetime for Rogers but I agree, he needs a couple more heavyweights like Arlovski under his belt before taking on the champ.
It’s obvious now that fighter doesn’t want to fight the best HWs in the world. Brett Rogers? C’mon the guy catchs Andre and now u want him. Fedor needs to be wanting the UFC HWs. Lesnar, Mir, Carwin, I even still want to seee him fight the seasoned Couture. This is why GSP is the best P4P fighter in the world. He wants to fight the best. If there was a better WW in Affliction, GSP would fight him for free if he had to.
Cross promotional isn’t going to happen so Brett Rogers is the best out there that he hasn’t beat or isn’t suspended. So of course he’s going to want the guy…
Interseting how he wants Rogers. Probably thinks he can get an easy sub Victory, and take out an undeafeted guy. IMO Vitor is his biggest threat right now. Rogers would have that 1 punch theory but besides that he would be outclassed. so would lashley who wuld get arm barred in 30 seconds.
Fedor certainly isn’t the only one “disappointed” that he once again won’t be facing a tough HW competitor.
Brett Rogers has a great future in this sport, but I highly doubt he’s ready for Fedor unless Fedor has grown even softer and rustier than his detractors [myself included] believe he has.
And I’m sure Fedor “would accept” a matchup with some MW so he can ragdoll another under-sized victim for another easy win.
I would have a lot more respect for Fedor if he walked away from this card right now, and had his Russian Mob-wannabe management insist that Affliction find him a decent challange within an appropriate timeframe, instead of throwing down with yet another unsuitable opponent, which will in all likelihood result in yet another unimpressive win for the Last Emperor…
you’re forgetting a business aspect my friend… Fedor fights this last fight for Affliction and the contract is done with them. So by saying he will still fight means(IMO) he could want to be done with this Affliction. If he wanted he could ask it be scrapped but when would Affliction possibly be able to come with another fight of any relevance? With Barnett pretty much done for a year unless he wins an appeal (highly unlikely) and Affliction unlikely to put on another show for awhile (if ever, just naming it trilogy implies an end) it seems logical to think he may just want to fulfill an obligation, get paid, and walk. If he pulled out and lets say Affliction never actually closes its doors officially he’s always on the hook for one more fight with the promotion. Why not try to just get over with and go.
As far as a replacement goes? Kudos to Fedor for saying he’d prefer to fight the only fighter available on Sherdogs top 10 rankings(#7 Rogers). You know Belfort would rather not but if Affliction throws enough money at him you know it’d be hard to turn down. Then it goes back to what I said about Fedor just wanting to be done with the deal.
I really believe he would rather face a true heavyweight than a fighter whose been cutting weight to fight at Middleweight. It just makes more sense when he says he’d “prefer” Rogers.
Really good point about Fedor’s contract, chrisl.
I wasn’t thinking in those terms, but you’re 100% right.
Case may be that Fedor is tired of all the Affliction, and would like to move on to wherever, probably DREAM so he takes a last-minute replacement fight, and win, lose, or draw he’s done.
I just don’t think Fedor wants to fight in the UFC, or at least thats the impression I get from his management’s demands.
I would honestly rather see Monson get served up to Fedor than Rogers, at this point, because Rogers has a real bright future in this sport, and at this early point in his career he could do without getting “Fedor’ed”, assuming the Last Emperor still has his PRIDE.
And even though there seems to be a lot of frenzied support for Vitor Belfort, I just see a guy, no matter how skilled, getting ragdolled by Fedor, who would probably outweigh him by 35 pounds.
I know its always convenient to throw out the the Royce Gracie analogy when it comes to size differential between opponents, but I try to deal in practicalities and not fantasies. Belfort is no Gracie on the ground, after all, very few are. No shame in that.
Would I like to see Belfort beat Fedor?
Definitely.
Do I expect to see it?
Definitely not…
well I would rather see monson as well because IMO it’s a little easier for a world class grappler to step in than a striker. Strikers have to get a rhythm for the guy and it’s hard to do that in a week. I’m not saying monson would be able to out do Fedor on the ground but he could at least hold on and provide a little bit of a challenge. I think Rogers would get blown up on the first mistake he makes and Belfort the same thing. Belfort has always been a better striker than a grappler so a Royce analogy doesn’t fit here IMO either.
When is that guy Antonio “Big-foot” Silva coming back?
Never. He went to fight in Japan when he was suspended for testing positive for PED therefore we shall not see him stateside.
Jackpot. Indefinite suspension from one commission = effectively banned over here.
Man i dont see why jcohl is so chocked! that Fedor is still willing to compete with a last minute replacement! EVERY Fighter does it i have never seen a champ or no champ walk from a fight with any replacement IT HAPPENS! its not like it is his fault that the opponent will not be a top level guy thats just the lack of great fighters in the org! he doing the professional thing and taking on anyone who is willing to rise to the challenge of fighting the WORLDS BEST HEAVY WEIGHT! you see the problem here is there’s only a hand full of guy that would fit this profile and most of those select few are in the ufc! and Kongo is Defiantly not on that list since he has probably the worst ground game in the ufc hw’s “thats @ you ZP580″ He need to be in the ufc so this type of high profile fight won’t go straight down the tubes like it has here! but it’s not just Fedors management that cant get the deal done its the ufc’s problem as well we all Know they are the biggest Dicks in the game!
I guess Mosin is saying that hes in the mix as well to be a barnett replacemwnt. i dont know how much drawing power he would bring, but as afar as a legit challenge he would be one of the only ones right now.
*Moson*
sorry
**Monson** lmao I think I need to go lie down.
I think Barnett would have less chance of winning than Rogers. I’ve been excited about this guy for a while, he is somewhat green overall but has much more dangerous power, accuracy and finish than Josh.
Josh is too damn slow for Fedor and would lose on the ground for sure.
To beat Fedor you have to KO him, we saw a brief flash of that possibility in the Arlovshi fight until he made a ridiculous mistake.
The better matchup is Fedor/Rogers…I wonder if he would have his Boykin/Big Black Posse with him.
I would pay to see this match up…i love fireworks!
When in the Fedor/ Arlovski fight did we see “a brief flash of the possibility” that Fedor would get KO’d? Oh, and I’m pretty sure that Barnett would be able to hold his own against Fedor on the ground.
BTW, I love fireworks too.
Arlovski was pressuring Fedor up against the ropes and was landing fast accurate shots, the shots were effective and appeared to hurt Fedor a bit.
That’s why Arlovski thought he could fly in with his lame knee stirke attempt…bad idea!
Fedor has punching power no doubt, but he’s not going to lose on the ground, he is more skilled on the ground than on his feet.
My point is he looked vulnerable at one point against Arlovski and every fighter can be KO’d, speed kills and Arlovski showed a flash of what it will take to beat Fedor.
Arlovski never landed one of those punches watch the slow motion replay
Wrong. He did get hit several times through the short fight as even the announcer stated along with the sound of the punches, good right hands.
Arlovski should have tried some patience, you cant rush Fedor just because you hit him with a few good punches.
Anyone else read about another site’s poll getting cited as justification for Rogers getting the spot??? What a crock, a bunch of 12 year olds having a say… IMO I think Vitor is the better choice. I know he fights middle weight but he is probably walking around at what 195-200 right now. (Anybody know exactly?) 185 is a water cut for him…Its not like its the Lindland fight all over again Vitor has a good chance..Brett has a puncher’s chance…Any other name mentioned is just trying to get PR.
Belfort weighs 198.
i dont get why everyone acts like fedor is ducking the UFC….the UFC is clearly ducking Fedor.
If Dana came out, offered him a 1-3 fight contract, no exclusivity and Fedor declined, then yes…Fedor would be ducking. just because dana white offers non-exclusive agreements for less money in all likelihood than Fedor can get in some other orgs doesnt mean Fedor is ducking anybody. I would bet that they could even stipulate that if Fedor gets injured in another org his contract terminates.
Dana just knows that Fedor could tear thru his entire HW division then leave with the title.
“just because dana white offers non-exclusive agreements for less money in all likelihood than Fedor can get in some other orgs doesnt mean Fedor is ducking anybody.”
-i meant exclusive instead of non-exclusive
So so true
This is an interesting statement.. because given Fedor’s age he could very well pull a Jens Pulver and literally leave the title vacant if he did come to the UFC.
You can’t blame Fedor for not wanting to change his whole life for the UFC when it is not a necessity.. the UFC obviously wants to completely lock Fedor down. It has been said by Fedor many times it is up to the UFC weather he fights for them and they just won’t give him what he wants in order to fight for the organization. The UFC is aware of what it will take to have Fedor fight for them but are unwilling to do it and as a fan that puts the UFC at fault for the whole thing.
IMO, as a fan that pays 50$ a month, they owe it to me to get the best in the organization, something they have proven unwilling to do. For me I don’t even look at the HW div in the UFC seriously.. it is hard to take the division seriously when the higher ups that run the UFC refuse to bring in the best talent.
The fault lies sole with the UFC IMO. Swallow your pride and bring the best to the organization. Nuff said.
What I mean to say is.. I pay 50$ a month so they can PAY FEDOR WHAT HE WANTS or grow up and come to a contract agreement so I can see him fight in the UFC. That is all.