Fedor Emelianenko Likely to Fight for Dream on New Year's Eve; Affliction Is Screwed

Fedor Emelianenko attended today's Dream.6 event in Japan and addressed the crowd during the intermission, and he suggested that he'll be back in Japan to fight on New Year's Eve for the sixth straight year.

That would be terrible news for Affliction, which has said it will have Fedor -- who is widely regarded as the best heavyweight in mixed martial arts -- in its January show in Southern California.

It should be noted that Fedor was speaking in Russian, it was translated to the crowd into Japanese, and I'm basing this post on the words of the HDNet translator who translated from Japanese into English. So it's possible something got lost here. But all indications were that as Fedor finished talking to the crowd, the fans were under the impression that they'll be seeing him on New Year's Eve.

It's not clear who Fedor's opponent would be. The best fight would be Fedor vs. the winner of the Dream.6 heavyweight clash between Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic and Alistair Overeem. But Fedor doesn't always fight the toughest competition, and at one point Fedor mentioned the name of Japanese judo gold medalist Satoshi Ishii, who called Fedor out after winning the gold medal in Beijing. To the Japanese fans, Fedor vs. Ishii would probably be a bigger fight than Fedor vs. Cro Cop or Overeem.

That's too bad, because Ishii would have essentially no chance of beating Fedor in MMA. Fedor is great, but he needs to consistently fight great opponents, and in recent years he hasn't done that.

But in any event, it now appears likely that Fedor will fight for Dream on New Year's Eve, and not for Affliction in January. So where does Affliction go from here?

UPDATE: Well, Fedor can't fight the Cro Cop-Overeem winner because there is no Cro Cop-Overeem winner. Their fight ended in a no contest. It's not clear what that means for Fedor.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

9-23-2008 @ 8:16AM

Eric said...

Overeem or Cro-Cop would be a better MMA fight, but likely still not a challenge for Fedor. Fedor put it on Cro-Cop when they fought before, and Cro-Cop's confidence can't be all that great after his recent slide in the UFC. I think Overeem would be an easy fight for Fedor being that Overeem is a natural 205 pounder.

9-23-2008 @ 8:19AM

Michael David Smith said...

Good point, Eric. The truth is, Dream really doesn't have anyone who would be likely to give much of a challenge to Fedor.

9-23-2008 @ 11:34AM

james said...

the truth is theres no1 on this planet who would give much of a challenge to fedor

9-23-2008 @ 11:54AM

DRIFT said...

TOO BAD, THIS RUSSIAN IS LIKELY 2 BE UNCONTESTED AND ALL RUSSIAN INCLUDING "PUTIN" WOULD BE HAPPY.
ISHII , CRO COP AND OVEREEM DO NOT STAND A CHANCE.
BUT i WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIM BEAT SOME AMERICAN BOOTY LIKE KIMBO, LESNAR, MIR OR JUST MAYBE "THE NATURAL" COUTURE.. ALSO I WOULD LIKE 2 SEE THIS EVENT HAPPEN IN THIS ORDER. CHANCES OF THIS HAPPENING PROBABLY NEVER....

9-23-2008 @ 1:19PM

Steve Barry said...

Hi Michael, I thought I would bring this to your attention. Tom Atencio stated late last week that a date has not been finalized for the second Affliction event, just that it would take place in Q1. This was well after all the Jan. 17 reports. Maybe Fedor won't be screwing them after all. Perhaps, he's a reason why they haven't nailed a date down yet.

http://www.mmaconvert.com/2008/09/21/tom-atencio-reveals-preliminary-concept-of-affliction-golden-boy-event/

http://www.mmaconvert.com/2008/09/23/fedor-fighting-in-japan-on-nye-reason-for-uncertain-affliction-date/

I would have emailed this to you, but I couldn't find an email address.

9-23-2008 @ 3:58PM

Like everyone I would love to see Fedor fight in Affliction against Barnett or Arlovski, but unlike the UFC they can't offer a great fight card because they don't have any other great fighters! I think Elite XC has a chance of making it with there CBS primetime format, but I think these other organizations will continue to fold as the others have before them. That being said, one lack luster evening with poor performances by Kimbo and Carano and the entire thing will likely go bust.

9-24-2008 @ 9:52AM

tom said...

Speaking of losing something in translation, you reporters annoy me to no end how you can take one piece of erroneous news and then run with it. It shouldnt suprised me since that's how real news work. As long as you have someone else to take the blame for lies, you can just carry the same erroneous news.
Ishii didnt 'call out' Fedor. Not in the WWF sense of calling someone out which is how we use the words here. That kind of behavior didnt jibe with what I've learned of the japanese mentality when I lived there. My japanese friends said that Ishii was asked after becoming gold medal winner what are his plans, will he continue international judo and so on. To this question, he said he would love to meet Fedor.
This wasnt Clubber Lang calling Rocky out. It was drenched in respect, not bravado.
Of course, its a lot sexier to imagine some trash talking going on and hey, who cares, right? It was said on the other side of the planet and no one here is gonna know.
Which is why its funny/pathetic that you mention something about losing in translation.

As for freak show, I have no problems with the best martial artist in one discipline meeting another one. Whether it is a kickboxer, judoka or karateka. This is what Vale Tudo and even UFC was about 10-12 years ago. Those martial artists still want to compete against people who practice different martial arts.

Brock Lesnar with the giant phallus on his chest has two fights and is considered not to be a freak and will be fighting the pumped up poster boy (you go 4-5 in your career and the words legend go out of the window)? Why? And didnt he fight an ex-champion in his first fight, Frank Mir?
What were his qualifications? He fought in fake wrestling? Does that qualify? And 10 years before that he was a wrestler. Not a world champion wrestler or even good enough to make his olympic wrestling team. Good lord no, he was good at school wrestling.
So no impressive background or experience but he's not a freak show?
Its called cultural bias. Look it up.

Steve Barry is right above. Q1 can mean February and March so if Fedor fights on NYE, a late Feb or March date is very possible.
How about Tom nails a date down before he whines? Last thing he wants is Fedor doesnt fight on NYE and the Affliction show ends up being March 10th. That will seriously piss off Fedor because he could do both.