(Yeah, Putin’s gonna get a big kick out of that, buddy. / Photo via hookedonmma)
Nursing a three-fight losing streak following his shockingly unsuccessful run in Strikeforce, Fedor Emelianenko will reportedly return to action against heavyweight veteran Jeff Monson on November 12th in Russia. Monson announced the matchup last night on Twitter, adding that the fight will be promoted by M-1 Global and there will be a press conference on September 16th. (“Putin will be there. Gonna try and get pic with him in my ‘Communist’ t-shirt.”)
Following his unsuccessful UFC title challenge against Tim Sylvia in November 2006, Monson left the UFC to pursue a bout with Emelianenko for BodogFIGHT. Though the match was scheduled for March 2007, negotiations fell apart and Emelianenko wound up fighting Matt Lindland instead.
November 12th is the same date as the UFC’s historic debut on FOX; broadcast plans for ‘Fedor vs. Monson’ are unclear at this point. Monson, whose June decision loss to Daniel Cormier snapped an eight-fight win streak, was previously attached to the main event of W-1′s first U.S. show on October 15th. If anything changes with that fight, we’ll let you know.
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btw, people are forgetting that the UFC chose their event day specifically to compete with the Pacquiao/Marquez UNDERCARD. Zuffa knows their place and they know that they cannot compete with the boxing main event, so they've chosen the next best opportunity to capitalize on which is to end up becoming the lead-in to the Pac/Marquez main event rather than actual events undercard.
M-1 seems to just be putting their event on the same day to compete with the UFC.. Perhaps they are not even aware of just how much they are against that night - or so it seems. In any case, I hope Fedor dominates but I hope it ends in the third round; something more like his fight against TK rather than something like when he fought Zulu. lol