(Fear is not in Fedor’s programming)

The most interesting story that came out of the Strikeforce conference call today was Alistair Overeem‘s  proclamation that Fedor Emelianenko is scared to fight him. 

"I’ve been challenging Fedor for some time now. His management has declined to fight me on numerous occasions," Overeem told reporters on the call. "If you have two parties and one of them is willing to fight and the other isn’t than what are you going to do?" 


After realizing that his insinuation may be a bit off base, considering the fact that Cyborgs like Fedor are not programmed to display fear, but can recognize it in their opponents, the Dutch-born Strikeforce heavyweight champion backtracked slightly, saying he feels that it’s Emelianenko’s M-1 management team that is the problem.

"I know Fedor’s a fighter and he doesn’t care who he fights, so I know it’s his management. It takes two to tango," he said. "They see me as a threat. One of M-1 Global’s managers knows how I train and has had an eye on me throughout my career. Any potential threat, they’re going to stay away from that."

For their part, The Last Emperor’s camp has maintained that they would have no issue with their charge facing Overeem as long as he passes pre-fight drug screening, a feat that Overeem somewhat creepily explained today will not be a problem for his fight with Brett Rogers this month, nor would it be if and when he faces Fedor.

"People can say what they want. People can say what they think," said Overeem, referring to the growing opinion that he has used performance enhancing drugs. "I’m going to have to pee, Brett’s going to have to pee, we all have to pee. There’s going to be a positive or a negative, and I know it will be negative."

Don’t worry, Potato Nation. He didn’t really mean, EVERYBODY has to pee. Just everybody who is fighting on the card.