“Trilogy” Opponent For Fedor Not Yet Finalized; Belfort, Rogers, and Monson All Possibilities
An opponent has still not been finalized to fight Fedor Emelianenko in the main event of Affliction: Trilogy, which takes place on August 1 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
Emelianenko’s original opponent, Josh Barnett, was forced out of the fight yesterday after testing positive for steroids during a random pre-fight screening.
Belfort, a middleweight who was scheduled to fight Jorge Santiago on the card, has agreed in principle to fight Fedor, but other options continue to be explored.
Emelianenko’s management, maintaining that their client is open to fighting anyone, made it clear at a press conference earlier Thursday that they’d prefer a fight with undefeated Strikeforce heavyweight contender Brett Rogers, who is coming off a knockout of Arlovski. Strikeforce maintains that Rogers, and fellow Strikeforce heavyweight contender Fabricio Werdum, won’t be fighting on August 1.
The latest possible opponent to appear in rumors is veteran heavyweight Jeff Monson, a Division I wrestler and Jiu Jitsu black belt, who should be in fighting shape with fights already scheduled for August 29 and September 15. Monson said earlier today that his name is “in the mix” in the pay-per-view headliner.
Affliction’s Tom Atencio stressed during a conference call with the media yesterday that rumors are just rumors until he announces a matchup, though an opponent is still expected to be officially named shortly.
[Pictured: Jeff Monson]
Tags: Brett Rogers, Fedor Emelianenko, Jeff Monson, Vitor Belfort
Loading ...
DUde wow, i like monson, but he would get assasinated! Does anyone think they will find a somewhat “suitable” opponent for this fight? I mean should fedor even fight? Forget about contracts for a bit, will this dude fight anyone? This seems to be a mess. I can’t wait till they announce the replacement.
you guys know dana is enjoying this. he must be in a great mood, and imagine if fedor loses to monson or rogers, he will never stop smiling.
i find it funny that fedor’s handlers say he/they are open to fedor fighting anyone, yet they demand way too much to fight anybody. their demands are ludicrous and insane imo.
That goes both ways.. the UFC’s demands are outrageous as well when it comes to Fedor coming to the UFC.
i would love to see monson vs fedor that would be good i would give the striking edge to fedor though
I kind of like the possibility of Monson fighting Fedor. Sure he stands a snowman’s chance in hell of winning, but he’s strong enough and a good enough wrestler to at least hang with Fedor for maybe a round. In the last year alone he’s beat an aged Kerr and Rico Rodriguez, and then he manhandled the always dangerous Sergei Kharitonov. Hell I’d even like a fight b/w Sergei and Fedor, but I’m not sure if they still train together. Fedor always seems to get taken down quickly by world class wrestlers, so Monson might dazzle the crowd for a few minutes.
This is a mess!!
Fight should be canceled and let that be it.
It was brought to my attention by chrisl on another thread exactly why Fedor wouldn’t want this fight, or event, cancelled.
He has 1 fight left on his Afflicted contract, and then he’s free to head back to [DREAM] Japan or SAMBO himself to death in Mother Russia or do whatever the heck else a Russian Military Experiment does.
Brett Rogers has a world of potential, so why would he foolishly rush into a fight with a man who MIGHT still be one of the best MMA fighters on the planet? Vitor Belfort wouldn’t be a horrible option, but does anyone really need to see Fedor dominate another undersized opponent?
Jeff Monson at least has the experience and ground game to keep the fight from being too much of an embarrassment, and maybe force Fedor to break a sweat.
Jeff Monson is the name that works best out of the mentioned group, and Tito Ortiz would work best for all the reasons I anotated on previous threads…
Yeah …. its almost worth just moving sobral vs mousasi up to headline the show . The other thing that could help if they moved fast enough is to throw it on ABC or ESPN .They dont show MMA cards unlike NBC and CBS so it fits . Then have a fight card including Fedor in a few months ……..
war Monson he was going to fight Fedor in 2007
Ok, “WAR _______” was so 6 months ago. And in Internet Time, that’s about 37 years. You’re behind the times. More appropriate would be a picture of Fedor hanging on a screen door and the caption “I CAN HAZ OPPONENT?”
Dude, wtf. I hate those stupid cat pitures but that was hilarious.
i never understood the whole war thing, mr dbiz [or anyone else]may you please explain it to me without humilating me too much for not knowing internet lingo.
I don’t know what it’s about, but apparently seems to be in favor of said person…
It’s a Jim Rome thing. There is a big long story to it that I think I vaguely remember if anyone really cares.
It was a sports radio show, callers would call in and say WAR Eagles, WAR Penguins, WAR Kobe. ect ect. In support of their favorite team or player.
So the first Affliction ad I saw on Time Warner Cable featured a heavyweight fight between Fedor and Josh Barnett. Someone needs to update their ads…
What kind of ad is “Fedor Emilianenko takes on an NFL tackling dummy….”
Sherdog just confirmed this event is cancelled. Fedor JUST might fight at Strikeforce.
Let him fight Bobby Lashley he has something to prove and might even get a better contract out of it.