Fedor Emelianenko returns to MMA as part of “an MMA mega-event” airing on Spike TV this New Year’s Eve Thursday, December 31st. Emelianenko will main event a show taking place from Tokyo, Japan and be a part of partnership with Bellator and a new global MMA promotion run by former Pride President Nobuyuki Sakakibara.
The co-promotion will include Bellator fighters. No opponent was named for Emelianenko whose last fight was in June 2012.
The announcement was made during Bellator’s event Saturday night, Dynamite 1.
Payout Perspective:
A rumor had it that Emelianenko was going to sign with the UFC. It appears that that is not the case although he did not necessarily sign a deal with Bellator. Instead, it appears that he may still be a “free agent” of sorts even with this scheduled fight. It will be interesting to see who will be matched up against Emelianenko. A New Year’s Eve event on SpikeTV will be an interesting concept for American audiences as many will be out on New Year’s Eve.
I hope he makes as much money as possible.
Bellator has always been good to fighters as far as money is concerned. I can’t wait to see Fedor in action again.
Let’s hope that this time he won’t be facing opponents who are pumped up with PEDs like in Strikeforce.
Pride’s back!
Well, not the news I expected. But the prediction I made at the beginning of the year that Fedor will be fighting has come to pass.
He will just cherry pick opponents like always. There is a reason a number of fights wasn’t announced. He is doing 1 fight deals where he can pick his opponent. I would bet the contract isn’t even with Bellator which is why they had to work with Sakuribara and do it in Japan.
Look for him to fight Kimbo or Shamrock or someone else with huge holes to exploit. He won’t take tough fights.
The contract isn’t with Bellator. It is with Sakakibara.
Bellator is involved in this whole deal so will the UFC trolls be kind enough to stop trying to highjack the threads?
The UFC is now involved in lawsuits and rumors about fixed fights. Why would Fedor want to have anything to do with this kind of company that’s also infamous for treating its fighters like crap?
Kharitonov, who is as good a fighter as Fedor, refused to fight for the UFC because he wanted 3 fights a year, not 1. So the UFC should first learn to respect its fighters and avoid getting sued. For a company that fancies itself the “best” in the world, most of its fighters are English speakers and Brazilians. And they fight only once a year if they’re not busted using PEDs or other prohibited substances.
None of that made sense! Did you have a stroke while banging on your keyboard?
I don’t blame Fedor for fighting outside of the UFC considering how White has spoken about him in the past, but I agree, that rant was incoherent.
of course fedor is going to fight in japan, theres alot of retards out there that forget how horrible fedor looked his past few fights
he cant hang with top fighters now, hes broke and needs to make some easy money
You never know, Fedor and his camp could be using the Japan event as a tune up for eventually joining the UFC. Ariel has mentioned he only has a 2 fight deal with the new Japan promotion, other’s have stated he only has a 1 fight deal. So, the possibility is still there. This would make a bit of sense if that was the case, but the reality is we are all a bit disappointed that Fedor has yet to fight in the UFC.
trust me fedor is going to take all the easy pay days he can get in japan.
he knows he cant win in the u.s he was kod by a 50 year old mw dan henderson
Biggest obstacle has to be Jerry Milan. Fedor will get his one fight in Japan, but no one really believes that a new promotion in Japan will last more than the one event, can it? I see this as a one and done type of thing, unless MMA has somehow resurrected in Japan.
Josh Barnett gives a really good assessment of the Fedor/Sakakibara thing.
about 49 minutes into the show
http://goo.gl/E56gNC
More on Fedor,
Triggs suggested that Fedor commands 1.9 to 2 million take home. That makes it difficult for an organization like Bellator to payout as with the US taxes, it would work out to over 3 million per fight. So, the reality is that only the UFC can afford that type of money in the US at the moment, and there is no way that with Fedor’s current management, that he will work in the UFC. So this is likely a dead deal. Case closed.
Unless something new surfaced, the issue isn’t with Fedor’s management team anymore. He isn’t demanding co promotion with Finkelstein anymore. I think it is just Fedor doesn’t want to deal with the UFC’s contracts. IE, Reebok, the longevity, etc.