Fedor Coming to The UFC?
A recent quote has the MMA world abuzz with news that highly coveted MMA fighter Fedor Emelianenko may be coming to the UFC very soon. Here is what Chuck Liddell told the Baltimore Sun in a recent Q&A:
Which fighters from PRIDE are you most excited to see fight in the UFC?
All of them. Any of the good ones. There’s “Shogun” [Mauricio Rua], there’s [Dan] Henderson. You’ve got Fedor [Emelianenko] coming over. [Antonio Rodrigo] Nogueira is coming over in the heavyweight [division].
The verbiage may just be nothing more than a simple slip of the tounge by Liddell or it could mean that an announcement of Fedor is just arround the corner.
Widely regarded as one of the top free agents in all of MMA, Fedor has alluded the UFC up to this point. With a 26-1 MMA record and 1 no contest with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira he boasts one of MMA’s best records. His single loss came at the hands of Tsuyoshi Kohsaka in 2000 and he hasn’t looked back since winning all of his fights.
Fedor has been a staple of Pride fighting nearly exclusively in the organization since 2002. One notable exception to his stint in Pride was his last MMA fight was a submission win over Matt Lindland on the bodogFIGHT “Clash of the Nations” PPV in April. Other notable wins include Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Kevin Randleman, and Mark Coleman.
Whether the report will pan out will only be known in time although I feel that Fedor eventually coming to the UFC, whether it is know or months or years down the road, is essentially a lock.
Tags: Fedor Emelianenko
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i dont care when and where or how but fedor has to come to the ufc were talkin major take over of all the titles c’mon….anderson silva (middleweight) quinton jackson (light heavyweight) and if fedor comes he shouldnt even need a warm up fight he should get a straight shot at who ever the champ is cuz lets face it fedor is the #1 fighter in the world and no one can beat him although it would be awesome too see..
peace
this whole sambo in russia thing is a bit ridiclous they will pay him probbably 1 million dollars a fight not to mention all the sponsorship deals he,ll get surely they can structure the contract so he cn fight 2 or 3 fights in the ufc a year and still do the sambo comps aswell its a bull**** if u ask me but the ufc contracts are the hardest to deal with they simply will not budge on this and either wll fedor so i honestly dont think it will happen, but hey he can still go on and beat the bum who couldnt cut it in the ufc like sylvia and anderi “gun shy arloski”
Hell, UFC and Pride are both under the same ownership, I say unify the Middleweight, LightHeavyweight, and Heavyweight belts. Have the champ in each division fight once a year in Pride and once a year in the UFC. Pride has no 170lb(Welterweight)division and there is a 6lb difference in the Lightweight divisions.
In all likelyhood Couture(the ageless wonder) will probably find a way to beat Gonzaga at UFC74. That will be the man Fedor will most likely have to go through to be the undisputed MMA heavyweight champion. I wish Couture was younger because in his prime he could probably give fedor the fight of his career. It’s like Ortiz vs Shamrock only at a higher level.
Hopefully Fedor signs the contract and gives the MMA community the fights we’d all love to see before it’s too late. Fedor + the Octagon = the winning package.
I think unification of the belts will ultimately be what happens. I am not ruling out that PRIDE may return to Japan I just think that one set of titles would allow most casual fans a better way to watch. The UFC doesn’t want to turn into boxing that’s for sure.
[...] and is widely regarded as the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Earlier this year things looked hopeful of a deal being completed though things took a turn for the worse in recent [...]