Fedor Signs With Strikeforce
By Bryan Levick on Aug 03, 2009
See the picture I attached to this post? That is a fight we have to look forward to as opposed to Fedor meeting Brock Lesnar.
Strikeforce sent out a press release today announcing the signing of Fedor Emelianenko to a multi-fight deal. Financial terms of the deal were not released, but he will fight under the Strikeforce banner and these events will be co-promoted by M-1 Global.
Neither a date nor an opponent has been decided either, though Strikeforce did say he wold be fighting sometime this fall on Showtime. Strikeforce has a few heavyweights who are recognizable but none that could give Fedor a run for his money.
Alistair Overeem captured the Strikeforce heavyweight championship back in November of 2007 but has yet to defend his title. Fabricio Werdum was supposed to take on Overeem on August 15th but will now face a still undetermined opponent as Overeem is still out with a hand injury.
Brett Rogers who recently shocked everyone but himself when he defeated former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski by knockout in just twenty two seconds was considered to replace Josh Barnett on the Affliction pay-per-view that was scheduled for this past Saturday but was canceled as Affliction has ceased operations.
The UFC went hard after Fedor and offered him a lot of money, the freedom to compete in Sambo tournaments in his native Russia as well as allowing him to wear any gear with M-1 Global on it. They would not however consider co-promoting with M-1 Global and that is what killed their deal and led him to sign with Strikeforce.
I will bring you more details as they become available.
Filed Under: MMA
Comments (7)
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This is cool because we’ll get to Fedor fight sooner than later.
Fedor vs Brett Rogers would be great because Brett Rogers clearly has a punchers chance to beat Fedor. That’s exciting!
Vee, I don’t know if anyone can beat Fedor with a punchers chance. After the Fujita fight, it’s hard to believe, but you’re right, if anyone can land that shot, it’s Brett Rogers.
There are a few heavyweights that Strikeforce has that make for interesting fights. I’ll be honest, I think a health Overeem fighting Fedor is more interesting than Brock, simply because Overeem is more technical and more versatile, but that’s just my opinion.
At least he’s got two more top ten opponents he can take on in Overeem and Rogers, assuming Overeem stays healthy.
We’ll see if Roger Gracie comes into play, too, though I don’t think he’s got a shot against Fedor unless he can get on top (and given Fedor’s judo, I think that’s very unlikely).
Overeem – #10.
Rogers – #11.
Both fall out of the Top-10 if Barnett is still there. On my list he isn’t.
I wanted Fedor in the UFC to contiuiously fight the best in the world. Strikeforce (whom Im a big fan of) doesnt offer that. Seriously Brett Rogers? Thats what I gotta watch, and sure Rogers could land a lucky punch and pull off the upset, but who the hell wants to see that? After all Fedors accomplished, in such a tough sport to dominate the way he has. That would be an absolute shame! I agree that when Overeems healthy hes a major threat! But thats a big if. Then what?
Dale, I don’t get it. Every major rankings board lists both Overeem and Rogers. There’s a reason.
The reality is, the UFC heavyweight division is great, but it doesn’t have the level of dominance that the rest of their divisions do.
With Lesnar (who has four career wins, and still a very undeveloped style that relies heavily on his athleticism and amateur wrestling background, though those are things that Lesnar can win a ton of fights on) at the top of the division, it may become a great weightclass, but until it’s dominant (and not just good), it’s going to be hard to motivate M-1 to negotiate bringing Fedor into the UFC on the basis that he has other options.
Strikeforce was one of those other options.
I like what you’re saying ironman. It’s true that, when I think of the UFC side of things, they have already run out of big names for Lesnar to fight. At least it feels that way. The up and coming heavyweights in UFC probably have as much general public mindshare as the heavyweights in Strikeforce. People on other forums are also commenting that this deal might attract heavyweights to Strikeforce such as the popular Randy Couture.
I think Fedor would seem like a slimeball if he abandoned M-1 by signing to UFC without co-promotion (even if he was allowed to wear M-1 attire in front of the cameras).
I think it is funny that Randy Couture dropped out of the UFC in a dispute that was all about money and people stood by him. Fedor stays true to his word (or at least that is the way it seems) and people say all sorts of things about him! Anyway right now the UFC HW division is not that solid. There are already fighters like Nogueira, Herring, and Cro Cop that he has already beaten. After that you have Mir, Carwin, Velasquez, and Lesnar and out of them Lesnar is the only one even remotely interesting. I say let Lesnar defend the belt a few times before everyone makes him the best P4P fighter in the world. Then I would be mad if Fedor did not fight him.