Olympic Gold Medalist Satoshi Ishii vs. Emelianenko?

2008 Judo Gold Medalist Satoshi Ishii recently challenged Fedor Emelianenko to a fight. We’ll have to wait to see if a Japanese organization can sign him as Fedor Emelianenko’s irrelevant New Year’s Eve opponent. But until then, you can catch two other Judo Gold Medalists both on this card: 1996 Judo Gold Medalist Pawel Nastula and 2000 Judo Gold Medalist Makoto Takimoto.

Satoshi Ishii, born 19 December 1986 in Ibaraki, Osaka, is a Japanese judoka. He won a silver medal at the -100 kg category of the 2006 Asian Games.

On April 29, 2006 and 2008, he won the All-Japan Judo Championships in Tokyo Japan.

On August 15 2008 he won a gold medal at the +100 kg category of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

Fighting Fedor Reality TV Show

According to a press conference earlier today a network distributor called Blue Entertainment Sports Television which has a clientele of athletes such as Reggie Bush, Andy Roddick and UFC light heavyweight fighter Houston Alexander have now signed the top heavyweight MMA fighter in Fedor Emelianenko. BEST is an American representative for M-1 Global that will help sponsor and market the new WAMMA champion along with other fighters under the M-1 banner as well.

The two partners will team up to get a reality show called “Fighting Fedor” and air the program later this year. Fighting Fedor is a show based on fighters training at the famed Red Devil Fight Club in St. Petersburg, Russia with the winner earning the opportunity to face Fedor at the show’s finale. BEST will also be airing 22 M-1 challenge shows in HD where it will nation vs nation MMA competition with each of the 22 telecasts being 1 hour each. Read the rest of this entry »

Emeliankeno to fight by NYE

WAMMA heavyweight champion Fedor Emelieanenko will be healed from his recent hand injury in time to compete by New Years Eve, reports Sports Illustrated.

“I think definitely by New Year’s Eve I’ll be ready to go,” Emelianenko told SI. “My desire at this point is to meet with the winner of the fight [between Arlovski and Barnett], but I still have a desire to fight with whomever loses as well.”

Emelianenko was to fight former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arloski in the headline bout of Affliction 2 on October 11th but was forced off the card due to a lingering hand injury re-aggravated in his first-round submission victory over former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia in July. Emelianenko was ultimately replaced by Josh Barnett and the winner of the main event matchup will take on “The Last Emperor” for the WAMMA title down the road, but not on a potential New Year’s Eve card.

Recent rumors about Emelienanko’s next opponent centered on a rematch with PRIDE and UFC veteran Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic but, according to the report, Emelianenko will instead fight a “judo legend or sumo wrestler” at the New Year’s Eve event.

Fedor Emelianenko signs with BEST

Fedor Emelianenko has signed with Blue Entertainment Sports Television (BEST) to extend his brand beyond the ring.

BEST, a unified full-service management and production company, will represent the former PRIDE heavyweight champion and current WAMMA champion in television and marketing deals.

Fedor joins a client list of other high-profile athletes and entertainers such as Tennis star Andy Roddick, NFL running back Reggie Bush and hit recording artist Janet Jackson. The two other mixed martial arts fighter signed to BEST are UFC light-heavyweight Houston Alexander and DREAM middleweight finalist Gegard Mousasi.

BEST will produce with M-1 Global Fedor’s new reality television show “Fighting Fedor,” which pits sixteen contestants in a single-elimination tournament to determine Fedor’s next opponent while training with Fedor’s camp, The Red Devil Sports Club in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Additionally, BEST will help distribute 22 one-hour episodes of Fedor manager’s M-1 Challenge series.

Fedor is currently nursing a hand injury that sidelined him from defending his WAMMA belt against Andrei Arlovski on Oct. 11 at Afflicion 2 “Day of Reckoning.”

Fedor Emelianenko Affliction Payday

There seemed to be a big to-do about Fedor Emelianenko’s official salary that was posted from the CSAC this past week. Emelianenko, on record, made a measly $300,000 for his fight against Tim Sylvia while Sylvia made a whopping $800,000. There was much speculation as to what Fedor Emelianenko was actually paid and now Mike Chiappetta at NBC Sports is reporting that the rest of Fedor’s money was indeed in the form of an advance signing bonus:

But a source told NBCSports.com that Emelianenko received a sizable part of his Affliction contract up front in the form of a signing bonus, and added that Emelianenko also owns the rights to his fight footage in several European countries. That second part may not mean much right now but if Affliction chooses to hold an event in Europe, they would have to pay him for the footage. Read the rest of this entry »

Fedor Emelianenko vs. Andrei Arlovski

LAS VEGAS – Fedor Emelianenko will defend his newly won World Association of Mixed Martial Arts heavyweight championship belt on Oct. 11 against Andrei Arlovski in the UFC’s backyard.

Affliction’s second MMA promotion will be at the Thomas & Mack Center on the UNLV campus, in the shadow of the UFC’s corporate offices, according to a venue official.

Affliction made its promotional debut last Saturday at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., with Emelianenko submitting ex-UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia in just 36 seconds.

Affliction vice president Tom Atencio said Wednesday an announcement on its next show would come Tuesday. But arena director Daren Libonati, who is a big MMA supporter, said he was excited to have Emelianenko back in his building.

Libonati was instrumental in bringing the now-defunct PRIDE Fighting Championship to the U.S. for the first time on Oct. 21, 2006, with a show at Thomas & Mack that featured Emelianenko defending his heavyweight title against Mark Coleman.

“We’re really excited to have Affliction in the building and particularly to have Fedor and all those other great names,” Libonati said. “I remember working so hard with all those people at PRIDE and the ultimate goal was to put on a show (at Sam Boyd Stadium, UNLV’s football stadium) where the PRIDE champions would have defended their titles against the UFC champions.

“That’s what we were working toward in those two (PRIDE) shows we did back then, but it never worked out. We always want to bring big events here, and any time you have Fedor in your building you have a big event.”

Arlovski is a former UFC heavyweight champion who was impressive on Saturday’s Affliction show in stopping Ben Rothwell.

Fedor gets schooled!

We all know that Fedor has been busy training and fighting and claiming titles such as the WAMMA heavyweight belt.

But what Fedor’s also done recently, while training for Sylvia, is join the ranks of well educated MMA champions. Just a little over a month ago he defended his Physical Education diploma with “Methodology for developing of strength abilities in training samboists of 13-15 years of age” at Belgorod State University. What usually happens at the “diploma defense” is the student reads their final work on a selected topic in front of a panel of professors and then answer their questions on anything at all that has to do with the topic. No multiple choice here, you have to know your stuff!

Also same little tiny write up mentions that Fedor may get to use his education and experience at the still in construction Academy of Fedor Emelianenko in Belgorod to coach professional fighers. It’ll be a really hot MMA training spot for sure.

It’s amazing how Fedor managed to keep true to himself and still live in a tiny city, a little aparment and with how rich and famous he is, still finish a Physical Education degree. Congratulations to Fedor and his achievements outside the ring.

Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia Video

Emelianenko shows Sylvia how it’s done. In 36 seconds.

It took less than one minute for a few introductions to be made on Saturday night at Affliction Banned in Anaheim, Calif.: the legendary Fedor Emelianenko made himself known to the casual mixed-martial-arts fans in North America, he introduced his fists to Tim Sylvia’s face, and a new player in MMA showed it may have the moxie to give Ultimate Fighting Championship a headache or two.

In the main event of Affliction Banned, Emelianenko (28-1, one NC) needed just 36 seconds to dismantle Sylvia (24-5), a two-time UFC heavyweight champion. The powerful Russian, who made his legend fighting in Japan but had yet to post a breakthrough performance in the United States, floored Sylvia with rights and lefts before pouncing on his fallen opponent and choking him out. With the stunningly efficient performance, Emelianenko captured the World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts (WAMMA) heavyweight title and continued to make his case for the mythical title of top pound-for-pound fighter on the planet.

Affliction, a T-shirt company that made its name in large part due to UFC fighters endorsing the apparel, made its debut in fight promotion on Saturday. Fighters’ salaries for the card have been estimated in the $4-5 million range, with many of the top heavyweights in the world fighting on the Affliction pay-per-view. The announced attendance was 13,998 at the Honda Center, showing that UFC - the unquestioned top company in mixed-martial-arts - may have to deal with the company in the future.

“I was very pleased with my performance,” said Emelianenko following the bout.

“Everything I wanted to do, I was able to do.”