MAIN CARD:

-Fedor Emelianenko vs. Fabricio Werdum
-Featherweight Womens Title Fight: Cristiane Santos (c) vs. Jan Finney
-KJ Noons vs. Charles Bennett
-Josh Thomson vs. TBA

Werdum tells MMA Fighting that unlike those who have tried to conquer the Last Emperor and failed, he’s going to take a different approach:

“This is my life fight, a very good opportunity. I’m training every day for six months because my last fight was in November. I want this fight. I have a lot of respect for Fedor, he’s very good, very tough, but it’s my opportunity and my turn now. Fedor’s a very good puncher, very strong with his right cross. Everybody tries the same game every time. Cro Cop, Arlovski, Minotauro — everybody tries the same thing. I’m trying a different technique this time. I have a good surprise. I have a good strategy but it’s a secret.”

“I surround myself with people who have the same attitude, intelligent people which you can learn from and develop yourself. In the gym my sparring partners don’t really like me. There’s nobody else out there with the speed, technical ability and the sharpness [to beat Fedor]. I know how to turn myself into a very dangerous weapon.”

Before Overeem gets a crack at Fedor, the Russian will first have to through his next opponent, Fabricio Werdum on June 26th.

For more on the Fedor-Overeem rumblings, visit our main Strikeforce News page.

Props: Sherdog.com

Fedor’s Next Fight: “Fedor has been ready to fight for a long time now. Fedor could have fought this past weekend. He is constantly training and constantly keeping up his form. With the level of training he’s doing, to get ready for a fight, he just needs to raise that level to a more intense training about five to six weeks out. The situation, as it is currently, is that we are discussing with Strikeforce getting the terms that were promised to us on the original deal prior to entering into the relationship. At this point, and for a while now, we have been officially waiting for the other side to give us a green light about going by those terms that we agreed on.”

Their Deal With Strikeforce: “We’re not trying to renegotiate a new contract,” Finkelchtein said. “We’re not asking for anything in addition to what we were promised prior to entering into the relationship in 2009. … What we’ve wanted, and why the fight didn’t happen this past weekend, is because we wanted the terms that were promised to us in the deal, and that’s what we are trying to negotiate – for us to be able to get those terms that were promised so we can move forward. The situation is completely in the court of Strikeforce. We’re just trying to get the go-ahead from them to continue on with the relationship in the way it was originally meant to be according to the documents that were attached to the agreement that we originally entered into.”

Negotiations with the UFC: “There are no official talks with the UFC with anyone with M-1 and the UFC,” Finkelchtein said. “There are no talks at all. I know through the recent interviews that Dana has done that he is really interested in Fedor, but there are no conversations or negotiations going on with the UFC at all. There are lots of rumors and reports because there are other people besides Dana, people in Japan, other promotions that have come out of the woodwork, so to speak, and who are expressing their interest in Fedor because he is the No. 1 heavyweight in the world. There is a lot of interest in him, and the media has supported a lot of these rumors. But there have been no discussions.”

Strikeforce’s Disappointing CBS Ratings: “The fact that the ratings were disappointing was disappointing to me, too,” Finkelchtein said. “It doesn’t influence at all our position in terms of the negotiations that we’ve been carrying on with Strikeforce, so our position hasn’t changed at all. I believe Fedor would have delivered better ratings because the interest in the event would have been greater had he been on the card. We continue to negotiate with Strikeforce in good faith, and we would very much like to see the relationship go forward. This would be ideal for our company. Unfortunately, it’s not really about us.”

Fedor Is Not Invincible: “I think Fedor is not the Fedor he was in PRIDE like so many of that generation of fighters. Fedor is the best and has beaten the best, but he is not unbeatable. Vadim (Finkelstein) recently made comments about me being a ’steroid bully,’ and that’s why they do not want to fight me? But then fighters who got caught three times with steroids in the past they want to fight. Or when Vadim does a co-promotion on New Years Eve, the unranked Hong Man Choi can be picked as an opponent for Fedor, who is 20 cm taller than me and 40 kg heavier.”

Brett Rogers: “Rogers showed some strength, but gassed in my eyes and gave Fedor room to come back because Fedor could smell that.”

More On M-1 Holding Fedor Back: “I wanted to fight Fedor but my management knows the management of Fedor very well. There is too much risk business-wise to make that fight happen for M-1. If they lose they cannot play their co-promotion card anymore and M-1 will be over. Scott (Coker) will terminate all bindings with M-1 and continue with me and Golden Glory as he knows we are reasonable and we have been around for 10+ years. I think he got gray hairs from them already (laughs).”

M-1 Ducking Him? “Of course they are ducking me. I am a risk to their whole organization. Vadim is embarrassing all the Russians. First not fighting Couture and now ducking me. At the same time he calls me a steroid bully in the Russian press. My manager will reply to that soon. But he still wants to fight fighters who have been caught three times using steroids! I will even wonder if Fedor is fighting in June. It always is a surprise party dealing with M-1. Fedor, you are a great fighter and like many other great Russian fighters in history you do your talking in a ring or cage. Leave this M-1 circus and start fighting the best. It’s okay to lose sometimes but hiding makes you look like a coward, which Fedor is not, Vadim is!”

After exchanging pleasantries, Coker politely asked White why he insisted on trashing his top fighter at every turn – especially after White himself admittedly offered Emelianenko the biggest contract in the history of the sport – to which the UFC executive replied:

“Are you fucking serious? You really know it all, huh Scott? I only put that offer on the table to drive his price up and bankrupt your puny promotion, which pales in comparison to my own enormous organization. I never wanted Fedor, I just wanted you to want Fedor.”

Though initially taken aback by the unusually abrasive comments from White, Coker became visibly infuriated and replied,

“Fuck you Dana. You might be about a foot taller than me, but my taekwondo can beat your big bitch boxing any day. Enough talk, lets settle this the way our employees do – my cage or yours?”

Before White could audibly reply, an airport security official approached the two men and told them to either separate or be incarcerated, and after exchanging a few more muffled words both executives wisely chose to part ways and head to their respective gates. Six minutes after the incident took place, White tweeted the following message while still storming away from the scene of the incident:

white vs coker is gonna be a dog fight bro – its fuckin on!!!!!!!

One rabid MMA fans who was on-hand to witness the verbal exchange followed Coker out of the airport after seeing the latest tweet alert from Dana White on his phone, and the stalker then approached the Strikeforce CEO to ask him if a Dana White vs Scott Coker bout was seriously going to take place. Coker paused for a moment, looked at the young man, and bellowed, ITTTTTTTTT’SSSSSSSSS TIIIIIIIIIMMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

If you hadn’t realized this entire piece is complete fiction. It’s April Fool’s Day, lighten up…

Barnett’s signing comes just one day after it was revealed that Emelianenko is currently holding out for a new contract from Strikeforce and his previously scheduled bout with top Brazilian striker Fabricio Werdum (13-4-1) has been pushed back indefinitely. Such a situation is not unusual in modern professional athletics except that M1-Global president Vadim Finkelstein, who represents Emelianenko, clarified the holdout saying:

“We do not fight for the Strikeforce Heavyweight Title. Strikeforce are our partner, and any titles whether it is UFC, Strikeforce, WAMMA, Dream… they are just medals. Fedor is above these things. We are interested in the level of our opponent and his popularity among the audience.”

“We are more interested in fighting Josh Barnett, who is currently disqualified until September. When he returns from his suspension and if he tests clean, we might consider fighting him.”

Remember, those comments were made BEFORE it was publicly announced that Barnett was headed overseas to fight for DREAM, which could indicate that Fedor’s holdout is more of an exit strategy to escape his current three-fight deal with Strikeforce (of which he owes two more bouts). Mixed martial arts has a tremendous following in Japan and there is no question that Western fighters can make serious bank fighting in the land of the rising sun, especially someone with the resume and reputation of Emelianenko with whom the Japanese fan base is already very familiar as the fighter spent his best days under the now defunct PRIDE FC.

Even more interesting than the timing of the comments is their tone, as Finkelstein makes it clear that championship belts are meaningless to Fedor who is ‘above these things.’ If the legendary Judo master is not interested in fighting for titles, then what is he still fighting for? Straight cash homey.

Unfortunately for Rogers the heavyweight strap will not be on the line as ‘The Grim’ last lost an epic battle with Fedor ‘The Last Emperor’ Emelianenko (32-1-0) back in November and is apparently ineligible to compete for the title. Just to be clear, this means that should Rogers defeat the current heavyweight champion he will not then become champion but would instead be forced to rematch Overeem and have to beat him consecutively to officially earn the belt which borders on unbelievable. From this writer’s perspective the last thing the sport of mixed martial arts needs is its top athletes setting a precedent of making diva demands in their contracts, in this case essentially saying ‘we can fight, as long as it doesn’t really count’.

Were Strikeforce truly interested in naming a true champion they would scrap this bout altogether and put Fedor in against Overeem as he is without question the top heavyweight contender who also happened to put Rogers out cold on the canvas just four months ago. Especially now that Emelianenko’s expected bout with Fabricio Werdum has been pushed back indefinitely there really is no excuse to further delay the promotion’s top two heavyweights from finally settling their score. Overeem claims that M1-Global, of which Emelianenko is a part owner, did not want the fight to happen this soon and apparently has a significant amount of pull within the Strikefroce organization – or at least enough to screw Brett Rogers out of what’s right.

This monster event is set to air for free on CBS as part of the broadcast deal Strikeforce negotiated last year that brought in huge numbers for 2009’s Fedor vs Rogers event.

Coker has thrown down the gauntlet in going head-to-head against WEC’s inaugural PPV, a sly move that will undoubtedly hurt the overall buy rate for UFC’s sister promotion. Given the choice between paying $40 to watch lesser-known lightweights go at it versus seeing literally the best fighter in the world compete for free really isn’t much of a choice at all. On top of that, there has already been a lot of skepticism regarding WEC on PPV in that the promotion may not be able to showcase enough top talent to justify the price tag.

The move by Coker is clearly in response to UFC President Dana White’s decision to consistently run top UFC programming in direct competition with major Strikeforce events. Most recently, White ran ‘UFC 107: Penn vs Sanchez’ Saturday night on SPIKE to compete in the same time slot as Strikeforce: Miami which aired on Showtime. UFC claimed 2.2M viewers to Stirkeforce’s 517,000, a number that would have been much higher had fans not been presented with a choice of mixed martial arts programming that night.

Moving the April event is more than just a retaliatory move by Coker as he is going after the UFC’s weakest link. Though WEC offers some of the best action around, in terms of viewership and fan popularity it ranks a distant third behind UFC and Strikeforce and Coker is looking to capitalize on its vulnerability. Hurting WEC hurts UFC, which is exactly what Strikeforce is seeking to do as they continue to build their brand and expand market share. For fans this kind of competition only means one thing – more awesome fights.

Strikeforce Heavyweight Bobby Lashley

TNA wrestler Bobby Lashley confirms that he has signed on for Strikeforce’s next event in April that will be airing live on CBS at a date still to be determined. An opponent has not been named yet for Lashley’s national TV MMA debut.

Lashley just signed to fight Yohan Banks at Strikeforce: Miami on 1/30 (airing on Showtime) and says his goal is to fight six times this year for Strikeforce. Lashley told Heavy.com:

“We’re going to do the fight on the 30th in Miami, and then turn around and do the April 19th fight on CBS. I told them I wanted to stay active. If they want to give me six fights this year, I’ll take six fights this year. I need more fights under my belt so that when that big fight comes, I’m ready for it.”

Lashley said he signed with Strikeforce so he could eventually get “that big fight” against Fedor Emelianenko, who is considered to be the top MMA fighter in the world. At 6 fights a year, he’ll certainly have a chance to rack up a few wins and prove himself worthy of a shot at ‘The Last Emperor’.

The news seemed odd, probably because the entire scenario was a complete HOAX. Apparently some genius decided it would be good idea to impersonate an international CEO and then create a Twitter account to spread misinformation and lies about Emelianenko’s career future. In response to this nonsense, Finkelchtein made it very clear as to what his plans are for ‘The Last Emperor’ in a statement published on the official M1-Global website:

“Today I heard the rumors of me allegedly stating on my twitter
account that we are negotiating with the UFC. I want to state that
there are no talks with the UFC whatsoever. Our partner in the USA is
STRIKEFORCE, we are happy to cooperate with STRIKEFORCE. Fedor
(Emelianenko) and Gegard (Mousasi) fight there and they are quite
happy with the conditions and how they are treated with respect there.
Finally, I don’t have any account on Twitter. The account that
ignited the rumors is false. Our attorneys are already aware of the
situation and shortly this fake account will be deleted.”

Unless the same douchebag who spread the initial rumors was somehow able to hack the M1-Global website, you can pretty much take it to the bank that Fedor will remain fighting under the Strikeforce banner in the foreseeable future.

Strikeforce MMA

After last week’s Strikeforce: Evolution event, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker confirmed that top-ranked heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko (31-1) will indeed fight on the company’s next CBS show currently scheduled for April. Coker also mentioned that the company is targeting Fabricio Werdum (13-4-1) as a potential opponent:

“It’s not confirmed…on that fight card, you’ll most likely see Fedor fighting Fabricio. It’s not guaranteed, but you will see Dan Henderson fighting on that card, and Gina Carano, we’ll invite her if she’s ready.”

Coker also went on to mention that the company would invite Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem (31-11) to also fight on the CBS card and that they are considering booking Gilbert Melendez vs. Shinya Aoki and Josh Thomson vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri as future bouts under the company’s partnership with the Japanese-based DREAM promotion.

Next, we need to define ‘depth’ of the division as clearly UFC has more fighters under contract than Strikeforce, but numbers alone do not equate to superiority. Let’s weed out some of the lesser fighters – those who have limited experience, are way past their prime, or simply have not displayed premier fighting ability inside the octagon – and cull the list to just those fighters considered to be skilled enough to be featured on the main card of a major event (beyond name recognition alone, e.g. Houston Alexander). Here is our revised roster consisting of only current top talent at each promotion:

Now that we’ve got two comparable rosters consisting of the best each promotion has to offer at heavyweight the real picture comes into focus. First thoughts when looking at these two lists side-by-side is that UFC has nearly double the talent of the Strikeforce, with UFC heavyweights combining for well over one hundred more wins (237 total) than their Strikeforce counterparts (123 total). Here again though quantity does not necessarily mean quality, and if we narrow the list further to just the top 10 world ranked fighters, here is how the best of the best shakes out:

Latest MMAWeekly.com Top 10 Heavyweight MMA Rankings

Here is where the debate gets interesting – UFC makes claim to six of the top heavyweight fighters in the world, while Strikeforce retains the other four. Again UFC has the numbers, but what the promotion lacks is Fedor Emelianenko, who is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. Fedor is simply on another level skill-wise when compared to any other fighter, and if you asked ten fight promoters if they had to choose between signing only Fedor or a combination of Lesnar, Mir, Big Nog, Velasquez, and Junior Dos Santos (world ranked 2-6 fighters) more than likely all ten promoters would take Fedor over the rest.

Sound ridiculous? Perhaps. But those who have seen Fedor’s body of work will respect that position as this man has defeated the best of the best for nearly a decade without losing, and is easily the most diverse and explosive cage fighter on the planet. There is a reason UFC was willing to shell out a king’s ransom to sign Fedor, and by not doing so effectively handed the promotional heavyweight crown to Strikeforce. Chime in by using the comments section below to let us know if you agree or not…

Let’s go to the video tape:

“I don’t know. To me, he’s not the reason I signed with Strikeforce just to fight him — although that is interesting and appealing to me to be able to challenge myself against him. I don’t know who else wants to fight him, but I do know the fans like to see him fight. He’s very effective and likes to finish guys and does a very good job. I think him and I would make an interesting matchup. I think I can beat anyone on any given day. It’s just a matter of making sure that everything is right with that day.”