Although Jeff Monson wisely avoided his go-to strategy of fucking dudes for free when he met Aleksander “Patient Zero” Emelianenko at M-1 Challenge 35 yesterday, he was able to come away with another one of his signature North-South submission victories. We wouldn’t exactly call the events leading up to said finish pretty — Monson’s wild, looping punches in the early going only looked passable when compared to the half-assed takedown attempts that followed them, but “The Snowman” did manage to sweep Emelianenko once things hit the ground in the first round and controlled the Russian for the rest of the fight thereafter.

Magalhaes’ finish of Zayats. Props: MiddleEasy

There may be nothing worse for an MMA promotion than a lackluster title fight. If you’re promoting two fighters as the best fighters your promotion has to offer at their respective weight class and they fail to deliver an entertaining fight, everyone looks bad. The promotion looks foolish for claiming that a sub-par fighter is the best it has to offer, all of the other fighters in that weight class look laughably incompetent by default (after all, they weren’t skilled enough to challenge for the title), and fans in attendance feel cheated. Just in case you can’t figure out where this is going: Kenny Garner vs. Maxim Grishin as an interim heavyweight championship fight all but canceled out the rest M-1 Challenge 27.

This isn’t to say that last night’s M-1 event didn’t deliver the exciting finishes we’ve come to expect from them. In fact, none of the fights from the main card went the distance. The night started off with three first round submissions from Daniel Madrid, Yasubey Enomoto and Arthur Guseinov, respectively. The combined amount of time it took these three to submit their opponents? Two minutes and forty five seconds. Very nice, gentlemen.

(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.

M-1 Challenge 26 was in Costa Mesa, California and on Showtime last night, but we forgot to mention it yesterday so you probably didn’t watch. That’s our bad; allow us to make it up to you. The promotion known chiefly for being the only negative thing most people can say about Fedor Ememlianenko has a roster full of names that are virtually unknown in the western hemisphere, but damn if they don’t produce some exciting fights.

The first video is a quick fight featuring Russian middleweight Arthur Guseinov versus American Team Quest product Tyson Jeffries. Things start out well for Jeffries; he easily takes the first ninety seconds of the fight. After that, Guseinov gets in touch with his inner Shlemenko for a second, AND IT’S AAAALLLLLL OVER!!1!!!!1!!one1!

Come on in past the jump and we’ll run down the rest of the broadcast; we’ve lined up the videos just like you like them.  Thanks to MrSfc16 for doing all the capture work.

Can we just call it even now?  We love you, Nation.

Even you, Sodak.

(The pudgy Russian scamp during happier and more certain times.)

When rumors began circulating that Fedor Emelianenko was considering a drop to light heavyweight to face Strikeforce 205-pound kingpin Dan Henderson, representatives from M-1 were quick to quash them.

“At this time it is all rumor with no truth. It’s not anything M-1 has considered at all,” M-1′s head of PR Eric Nicholls told MiddleEasy last month. “Should it be decided that Fedor would consider dropping to 205, M-1 would make an official announcement.”

Well, it looks like Nicholls was just pretending that things were business as usual at M-1 as Fedor has now admitted that he is considering dropping down a weight class.

(The photo above was paper-clipped to the front of M-1′s memo to tournament participants that drug testing will be mandatory for the GP. Subtle.)

When Dana White’s favorite Crazy Russian, Vadim Finkelstein speaks, the MMA world listens, mostly just because he usually has a lot of bizarre demands to make.

In a recent interview the head of M-1 did with Russian sports news site Sports.ru, Finkelstein touched on a lot of topics including the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix, Fedor’s contract status and his recent statement he made about mandatory drug testing in the later rounds of the tournament.

Check out what Vad-Fink had to say after the jump.

(With a BFF like this, who needs the mob?)

M-1 Global president and Fedor Emelianenko puppet master Vadim Finkelchtein responded today via MMAJunkie, to several claims made in an open letter addressed to him by Alistair Overeem’s manager and trainer Bas Boon, including an assertion the longtime Russian promoter has strong proven ties to the Mafia in his country.

In the letter,  Boon recalled an incident from a few years ago involving Finkelchtein’s right hand man, Apy Echteld, in which the latter allegedly threatened  to use his mob contacts to have a Seattle-based promoter  killed because of a soured business deal. Finkelchstein say that a nearly identical claim was made by Boon in the past, however that time the story involved a Dutch promoter.

(Props: Fightlinker)

At long last, we present the video of Wednesday’s grappling exhibition between Fedor Emelianenko and Shinya Aoki at DEEP/M-1 Challenge 3rd Edition. As you’ll see, the whole thing was really just a good-natured joke, with both fighters putting on a display that was more slapstick than combat. (But man do Emelianenko’s throws look smooth when they’re done with a 160-pound training dummy.) Fun stuff. Now let’s see the UFC do this with Lesnar and Penn…

(The youth of Russia: finding new and innovative ways to abuse performance-enhancing drugs.  Hope you’re taking notes, American children.)

We were hoping that the official explanation behind Kirill “Baby Fedor” Sidelnikov’s positive steroid test would be physique-related, but it looks like we lose this particular MMA betting pool.  The increasingly shady organization known as M-1 sent out a statement today ascribing the positive test for Stanozol to “a nose spray commonly used in Russia” to treat complications from a broken nose.  

Damn.  We never would have guessed nose spray, but now that we hear it we can’t help but feel like we shouldn’t be so surprised to find out that certain chemical treatments commonly used in Russia might contain anabolic steroids.

The statement itself is a true marvel of linguistic acrobatics, as it manages to express support for Sidelnikov while also conveniently distancing M-1 from any hint of wrongdoing.  For example:

(Photo courtesy of Shootboxing.org.)

Well, it looks like Brett Rogers is getting shafted again. From a press release that landed in our inbox this morning:

As with anything related to M-1 or Affliction, treat this announcement more as a possibility than a confirmation. But if it does come together, the Babyface Assassin had better be on guard — Yvel, after all, has three disqualifications under his belt due to biting, eye-gouging, and knocking out a referee. Still, he’s often brilliant when he keeps his emotions in check, and has won his last seven fights via stoppage, most recently a 22-second TKO of Alexander Timonov at last month’s M-1 Challenge event in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Barnett has been a perfect 3-0 since the demise of PRIDE, and last competed at Affliction’s "Banned" show in July, where he scored a second-round knockout of Pedro Rizzo. Personally, I’m happy to see Barnett fighting any legitimate opponent — and if he can punish Yvel for all his bad in-ring behavior, even better — but if you’re interested in the opposing viewpoint, Fight Opinion has four reasons why this matchup is "worthless."

(“Well, it was nice knowing you.” Photo courtesy of M-1 MixFight; props to BloodyElbow for the heads-up.)

M-1 is holding an M-1 Challenge event today in St. Petersburg, Russia, with Team Russia Red Devil taking on Team Korea, and Team Russia Legion facing Team Holland; the full lineup is here. Headlining the team competition will be two “superfights” that reflect the card’s nation vs. nation theme. The Legion/Holland main event will be 1-1 rookie Alexander Timanov vs. Dutch bad-boy Gilbert Yvel, while the Red Devil/Korea feature will be none other than Alexander Emelianenko vs. Spirit MC/DEEP/M-1 vet Sang Soo Lee (10-4). Soo has won four of his five fights this year, including a submission victory over Emelianenko’s Red Devil clubmate Roman Zentsov. The Korean fighter may be a step up in competition from Aleks’s last opponent, but we still think The Grim Reaper should be able to take this one relatively easily. More photos from yesterday’s weigh-ins are after the jump, courtesy of M1MixFight.com.

(Photo courtesy of ESPN.)

M-1 Vice President Jerry Millen released a lengthy statement to the media last night congratulating Randy Couture for his return to competition as well as Brock Lesnar for his UFC heavyweight championship win, while lambasting the UFC for marketing their fighters as the best in the world — when clearly it’s M-1′s own fighter, Fedor Emelianenko, who should hold that distinction. And there’s no secret who Fedor wants to take on next to prove it:

Couture and WAMMA heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko had publicly acknowledged a desire to fight each other multiple times over the course of the past year. While M-1 and Fedor remain interested in a match against Couture, we would also like to publicly state for the record that we would welcome a superfight between Fedor and Lesnar that would be held as a co-promoted event between the UFC, M-1, and Affliction Entertainment.

We’ve invited the media to speak with us today to not only make it clear we would welcome a Fedor vs. Lesnar matchup, but to act in a preemptive fashion to address the possibility that UFC officials will try and position Lesnar as the number one heavyweight in the world, much like they have tried to use a marketing ploy to brand Anderson Silva as the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

In the past, UFC president Dana White and Zuffa, LLC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta have tried to claim that Fedor was “overrated” and that his “record was irrelevant.” They make these claims in spite of the fact that Fedor holds career victories over UFC champions past and present. While we have tremendous respect for the contributions Mr. Fertitta and Dana have made to this sport, we do not believe they are sincere in their statements.

(Say something about the pants. I wish you would.)

The relationship between Affliction and the MMA organization/Fedor Emelianenko rental company known as M-1 has always been somewhat sketchy. M-1 gets to make pointless speeches at Affliction pressers with no explanation as to why, they put their ads all over the arena during Afflicton’s July event, and generally seemed to have a hand in anything Fedor-related that Affliction even attempted. Now, apparently, the partnership is official:

“We’re basically just solidifying our relationship,” Affliction vice president Tom Atencio told MMAWeekly.com of the Russian promotion. “We work well with them. They’re one of the few companies we’ve worked with that if they say they’re going to do something, they do it. They’ve stood behind us, especially with negotiations with the UFC.”

This is part of what Affliction is planning to announce at tomorrow’s Trump Tower press conference in NYC. Another part is their involvement in the “Fighting Fedor” reality series. When will this show air, on what channel, and will there be anyone remotely credible in the running to fight Fedor? Hopefully that will all be answered at tomorrow’s press conference, though we can tell you right now that the answer to the last question is no.

The new deal between Affliction and M-1, however, should finally put to rest any notion of Fedor fighting Randy Couture in the near future. M-1′s Raimond Joost said there was no real possibility of Fedor signing a deal with the UFC, and as long as the UFC has Couture (which should be a healthy portion of his remaining shelf life as a fighter) you know they aren’t about to loan him out to the competition. So basically, take whatever remaining hope you had of ever seeing that fight and bury it somewhere deep inside yourself along with your suppressed rage and childhood dreams of happiness.

(Aleks’s sledge-hammer rears its head over the airspace of Tireland.)

When Aleksander Emelianenko was pulled from July’s Affliction: Banned card at the 11th hour, American MMA fans were robbed of seeing “The Grim Reaper” compete in the U.S. for the first time. Though rumors persisted that the CSAC blocked Aleks from fighting due to health concerns, he has always insisted that late paperwork was to blame, and that his health is good. Good enough to fight outside of the States, at least: M-1 has announced that Fedor’s younger brother will be headlining M-1 Challenge 9 against Sang Soo Lee, on November 21st at the Ice Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Lee (9-4) is a Korean fighter who has fought under the SpiritMC, DEEP, MARS, and M-1 banners, and is on a three-fight win streak. His last match was a first-round triangle-choke submission of Roman Zentsov at M-1 Challenge Korea in August — and now Aleks is going in to avenge his Red Devil Sport Club homey’s loss. The Emelianenko/Lee match will be supported by fights between Team Korea and Team Russia Red Devil, and Team Russia Legion vs. Team Holland.

But before that, M-1 will make it’s first appearance on U.S. soil. Says M1MixFight.com:

On October 29th 2008, the M-1 Challenge will come to Kansas City, Missouri for the 8th installment of this new fight series. 3 time All American Wrestler of Missouri and UFC and IFL veteran Mike Whitehead (22-6) is slated to take part in the event as the superfight participant.

Whitehead had a 13-fight win streak snapped at Affliction: Banned when he dropped a decision to Renato Sobral. As for Aleksander Emelianenko, he expects to compete at Affliction’s January event, and may also “fight around Christmas-time in Japan.”

Gina Carano, her form-fitting yoga pants, and an extremely drowsy dog hang out with Shape magazine. Remember, girls — it’s okay to be you! Props to Showtime Sports.

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Courtesy of FiveOuncesofPain, here’s the new trailer for M-1 Challenge, which premieres on HDNet this Friday at 8 p.m. ET. Ten MMA teams from eight different countries competed against each other in a series of tournaments held around the world over the last year; the TV series shows how it all went down. Friday’s episode showcases the battle between Team France and Team Russia (Red Devil).

Something truly awful awaits you after the jump…

(With the right contract, maybe Fedor can even afford to finally quit his part-time construction gig.)

Dana White has managed to shoot down most of the ‘what if’ questions in regards to Randy Couture facing Fedor Emelianenko in the UFC by repeating over and over again that Fedor is under contract with “another organization” and thus they can’t even talk about making that deal yet. But in an interview with USA Today’s Sergio Non, M-1′s Director of Operations Joost Raimond says that’s not really the issue:

The contracts that Fedor has at this point in time would allow for such a fight to take place, and specifically the Randy fight, so we’re free to make that happen if the opportunity presents itself.

…[A]nd the UFC knows that. That’s not a secret and we’ve always been very open that the Randy-Fedor fight is something special. It’s not your ordinary contract fight, as far as any fight can be ordinary.

But we’ve made provisions in any and all contracts that refer to Fedor to allow that fight to take place, with any organization in conjunction or in coooperation with whoever. Contractually there’s not an issue. … so I don’t know Dana would be calling that out, because the UFC is well aware that we have that contractual possibility.

So if it’s not his Affliction contract that’s holding things up, what’s the problem? From the sound of things, M-1 and Fedor’s “crazy Russian” management team are getting in the way. When asked if Fedor would be willing to sign an exclusive contract with the UFC — and as we all know, that’s the only way they do business — Raimond said it wasn’t a “feasible option.” And why not?

M1Mixfight.com has posted the results of last night’s M-1 Challenge event in St. Petersburg, where all three Red Devil Sport Club headliners walked away with victories. Amar Suloev scored a first-round TKO over Jacek Buczko, Roman Zentsov won a split decision over Daniel Tabera, and Aleks Emelianenko executed Silvao Santos, who came into the fight with an MMA record of just 1-0. Video of the squash match “Superfight” is above, and full results are after the jump.

(“Hey, shit happens, right?”)

Contradicting his earlier claims that M-1 Global’s relationship with Fedor Emelianenko was still A-OK, Monte Cox recently went on Sherdog’s Savage Dog Show to set the record straight: Cox and Sibling Entertainment have parted ways with Emelianenko, and the “M-1″ name is now wholly under control by Emelianenko’s managers. But even though their marquee fighter is gone, the former American faction of M-1 still intends to keep working towards putting on its first MMA show. As Cox told Sherdog:

“The group that formed M-1 Global is still together and we’re going to remain together and put on an MMA event. It won’t be under the name M-1 Global because that is definitely associated with Emelianenko Fedor and the Russians, and we’ve come to an agreement that we’re going to part ways…I am looking at June 14 to do our first show in Chicago…It won’t be the UFC. We don’t have that kind of money to throw away. Now, without Fedor, I expect the show in Chicago to turn a profit.”

Cox also admitted that Emelianenko never signed a contract with M-1 Global; Fedor only signed a letter of intent that prevented him from competing outside of M-1 Global during contract negotiations:

(The classic taste test.)

Seriously, can we just push Fedor Emelianenko and Randy Couture into the alley behind Bed, Bath & Beyond and let them beat the shit out of each other? That’s all we want. Let’s just do this. We’ve heard about The Natural’s numerous UFC legal tangles that stemmed from Couture’s efforts to set up a fight with Fedor, and recently Fedor’s free agency details have also started to surface. And while we’re talkin’ contracts, did Fedor even have one with M-1 Global? Apparently not, according to Sherdog:

The Russian heavyweight’s only agreement with the company — according to the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity — came in the form of a letter of intent.

The return of a $1.5 million signing bonus paid by M-1 Global to Emelianenko is the only hurdle to the former Pride champion’s potential free agency. That should be remedied this week, the source said.

M-1 Global CEO Monte Cox declined to comment.

Once Emelianenko is clear of his M-1 obligations he is expected to field offers from several MMA promotions. The early leader, according to the same source, comes from the purported partnership between Affliction and Oscar de la Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, which Sherdog.com has learned could debut on June 28.

So the possible Randy/Fedor fight plot thickens. Golden Boy did not comment either, but a source claimed that Fedor would get $1.5 mill for a fight with the organization and his managers would get the TV rights in Japan and Russia. The report also claims that Fedor’s bro — Aleksander — will probably sign with Affliction along with Matt “Movie Screen Forehead” Lindland (previously reported).

So the official contract between Fedor and M-1 was reportedly never signed by the Russian heavyweight. But what does it mean if I forged my uncle’s name on my apartment lease? Am I cool with skipping the April rent? Sweet.

As reported here earlier, Aleksander Emelianenko will be headlining an M-1 Challenge event in St. Petersburg on April 3rd. M1MixFight now has more details on the event, revealing that “Aleksandr Emelyanenko” (whoever that is) will be facing former Brazilian pro boxer Fabio Maldonado, who has compiled a 4-1 MMA record facing nobody you’ve ever heard of. In the event’s other “superfights,” Roman Zentsov will take on equally anonymous Brazilian fighter Junior dos Santos (5-1), and Amar Suloev will take on Polish journeyman Jacek Buczko (11-3).

I know — dullsville, right? But the night’s main card might provide some patriotic excitement, as a separate Russian team will compete against a Japanese crew, and a quintet of Fins face off against Team Korea. The lineups:

Team Finland vs Team Korea
Niko Puhakka vs. Kim Jongman
Janne Tulirinta vs. Lee Yonghoon
Lucio Linhares vs. Lim Hyungyu
Toni Valtonen vs. Choi Seunghyun
Jarno Nurminen vs. Kim Jihoon

Team Russia vs Team Japan
Yuri Ivlev vs. Nakamura Daisuke
Islam Karimov vs. Hamamura Ken
Ansar Chalangov vs. Watanabe Yuta
Besike Gerinava vs. Sakuragi Yuji
Ahmed Sultanov vs. Fujii Katsuhisa

As for M-1 Global, their site is still a dead-end, and Russian MMA reports that Vadim Finkelchtein wrested control of the operation from the Americans last month. So, Mitchell Maxwell and Monte Cox should be receiving the news in another few weeks.

(Props: FiveOuncesofPain)

(Fedor and the M-1 crew, in happier times.)

Could Fedor Emelianenko become a free agent after suffering through five months of M-1 Global’s disorganization and managerial impotence? According to a new bombshell dropped by ESPN: The Magazine, hellz to the yeah.

Apy Echteld, one of Emelianenko’s agents, confirmed what a source close to the situation previously told The Magazine: M-1 Global and Emelianenko will part ways some time in the next week, making the Russian a free agent. Divorce negotiations are ongoing right now, with a formal announcement likely for in the next few days. “Officially, yes, Fedor will be a free agent,” Echteld says.

Holy crap, does this mean that Dana White would be willing to resurrect negotiations with the “crazy Russians” and work on making the Fedor/Randy fight happen in the UFC?

“Absolutely, 100 percent, in a heartbeat,” says White. “People think he’s the best — I don’t, not even close. But if it’s somehow possible, I would make it happen…As much as we’ve gone back and forth on this, I would sign Fedor and do everything possible to get Randy in the Octagon with him…because A., it’s a great fight and B., I think Randy would smash Fedor.”

Echteld responded in a poetic fashion that’s common to Russians: “If everybody is willing to put a little wine in the water, then we have something to work with.” Through his spokesman, Couture declined to comment.

Well this is fucking awesome! The long international nightmare that was the M-1 Global farce looks like it’s about to end, and Fedor can move on with his life. Except not so fast. Maybe it’s just good old-fashioned denial, but M-1 Global prez/CEO Monte Cox is still insisting that Fedor ain’t goin’ nowheres. “As of right now, M-1 Global and Fedor are still working together,” he told MMAWeekly.com:

Cox declined to comment about the ESPN article, but said M-1’s plans were still underway for its first event on American soil, a June 14 card at the Sears Center in the Chicago area, still expected to feature Emelianenko. The show has been rescheduled from a May 3 date at the Allstate Arena, also in the Chicago area.

Monte Cox probably just didn’t get the memo yet, which is understandable because M-1 memos first have to be translated from Russian into English, and that takes time. Anyway, cross your fingers that M-1 swirls down the shitter, because Fedor signing to fight Randy in the UFC would pretty much solve everyone’s problems.

UPDATE: From Sherdog: According to one source that asked not to be identified, M-1 will likely expect Emelianenko to return a $1.5 million signing bonus he was paid last September. Negotiations should be finalized by Tuesday of next week, the same source said.

Earlier: Aleksander Emelianenko to Headline Next Month’s M-1 Challenge?
Way earlier: “Like all children, I was afraid of darkness.”

Might as well pop some Excedrin now, because your head will be aching after this one. According to ADCombat.com, M-1 Global is quietly setting up its first event in Russia, which will go down at St. Petersburg’s 3000-seat Ice Palace on April 3rd. One of the promotional images is above; the event will be headlined by Aleksander Emelianenko (against a yet-unnamed opponent), with M-1/PRIDE/Bodog vets Roman Zentsov and Amar Suloev also scheduled to fight (ditto). According to ADCombat’s anonymous “Russian insider”:

“With the Russian elections last weekend, advertising before [then] was next to impossible, as most attention is focused on the elections. The smaller venue may indicate a good bit of pragmatism on the part of the promoters, since they are only going to have a month or so to really push the event.”

So, by now you’re thinking, “if this is supposed to be an M-1 Global event, why does that ad clearly say M-1 Mix Fight?” Very good question. ADCombat writes:

In a previous conversation, M-1 Global’s Monte Cox confirmed that [Vadim] Finkelstein and [Apy] Echteld would be promoting events with the M-1 Global name, however the infrastructure for the show and promotion are independent of what Cox will use when M-1 Global begins to move forward in the United States.

Which explains absolutely nothing, considering that Finkelchtein isn’t promoting this event with M-1 Global’s name, but under his old Mix Fight label. According to RussianMMA.com, the St. Petersburg event will actually be the second leg of the not-very-well-publicized “M-1 Challenge” that we briefly mentioned last month. The first M-1 Challenge event was apparently held last Sunday in the Netherlands, with the Fedor-coached Russian Red Devil Sports Club competing against France’s Team Amossou, and a Netherlands team taking on a pack of Germans; shockingly, the Russians lost three out of five matches to the Frenchmen. (Don’t ask how the Netherlands/Germany matchups went down, because results weren’t published on M1MixFight.com, and news hasn’t yet trickled down to any other American MMA websites.)

RussianMMA reports that the April 3rd M-1 Challenge event will include teams from Russia, Japan, and “Europe,” and Emelianenko/Zentsov/Suloev will be competing in superfights. Checking M-1 Global’s official site, of course, confirmed nothing — it hasn’t been updated since New Year’s Eve, and you can’t expect Monte Cox to keep tabs on Vadim all the time. Especially when M-1 Global is such a disorganized pit of confusion…

(Randy, Rob Schneider, a parasol — pretty good little Saturday.)

The Fight Network has more details about the preliminary injunction that Zuffa has filed against Randy Couture, which we first mentioned last week. Here’s the broad strokes of the 90-page document: Couture’s association with the IFL, particularly his appearance at the IFL’s season opener on February 29th in Las Vegas, will cause the company “irreparable harm” and violates his contract.

Nothing we haven’t heard before, and if there really was a one-year restricted non-compete period in his contract, Couture will likely come out on the losing end of this one. From the article:

Xtreme Couture plans to field a team at the Feb. 29 IFL event, and Couture has said he intends to corner fighters from his camp at the show. Zuffa’s lawyers — who attached e-mails about the IFL card to its injunction request as evidence, including an IFL.tv screen grab that shows Couture’s face next to an Xtreme Couture logo — argue such advertisements constitute “direct or indirect competition” against the UFC.

Well, if Zuffa doesn’t like Randy’s IFL involvement, they’re really not going to like M-1′s latest cockamamie project. MMAFightline is reporting that M-1 Global is launching “M-1 Challenge,” in which various countries will field five-man MMA fight-teams to do battle against each other; think the IFL, but on a worldwide level. Coaching the Russian team will be Fedor Emelianenko, and slated to coach the American team is, of course, Randy Couture. We actually think this is a fantastic idea, except for two things:

1) This is M-1 we’re talking about here, so this project will never, ever get off the ground.
2) That lawsuit thing that Randy’s dealing with.

Aaaaaand, it now looks like his name has been removed from the “M-1 Challenge” post on M1Mixfight. Probably the best thing to do, what with all this legal heat. We’ll keep you updated…

Fedor Emelianenko rolled through three opponents last Thursday in St. Petersburg to win the 2008 Russian Combat Sambo Championship. His first two matches lasted just 35 and 10 seconds long, and his final match against Stanislav Shushko (who had a near-Hong Man-esque height advantage against Fedor) lasted a full minute. The video from that match is below. This is the third-straight year that Emelianenko has won the tournament, and fifth overall.

In other Fedor news, M1MixFight.com has posted a new preview video for an M-1 Global-sponsored reality show called Fighting Fedor, in which 16 MMA hopefuls will do battle for a chance to get their ass tore up by Mr. Emelianenko himself. I gotta say, this isn’t going to do much to deflect criticism that Fedor is avoiding high-level competition. The trailer even doesn’t mention if all these guys are even heavyweights (Update: it does, and they are) — or what channel this show might be on. But hey, great concept! The video doesn’t allow embedding, so go to M1MixFight.com and see for yourself…

Although it’s happened to countless office-drones in recent years, Tim Sylvia may be the first mixed martial artist to be fired from his job for talking shit about his boss on his blog. On Friday, he posted the following on the tim-sylvia.com forums:

i have one fight left on my contract i want to stay with the ufc but i am going to go were the money is right now Brock is making more m0ney then me that has to change i have a better name then him and i am a better fighter then him, in case u didn’t know my manager runs m1 so i have a pretty good in so we will see what happens in the next few months.

Why doesn’t it surprise me that Tim Sylvia writes like a 14-year-old mall-girl? Dude, would it kill you to throw in some punctuation? Various websites picked up on the “Tim Sylvia to leave UFC for M-1″ angle of the forum entry and quickly re-posted it. Realizing that things on the Internet tend to get around, Timbo posted the following bit of damage-control on his site yesterday:

well let me just start off by saying people r fucked up by saying that i want to leave the ufc. I dont its my home and i would love to be there for the rest of my carear. Second I didnt say i wanted or even was thinking about m1 u guys (forum users) asked about it and I told u my manager runs it thats it, so please dont take shit out of context. Some of u people are going to get me in trouble with the ufc.

See what you’ve done, you bloodsuckers? You’ve gotten Tim so hot and bothered that he’s abandoned apostrophes altogether. And spell-check? Fucking forget about it. We think that once Monte Cox patiently explained to Sylvia that M-1 is not a legitimate fight organization, but rather an elaborate front set up to promote/protect Fedor Emelianenko — and leaving the UFC for M-1 would actually be a terrible career move — the Maine-iac had an “oh shit” moment and made that follow-up post.

The fact that Brock Lesnar has a $250,000 guarantee per fight clearly bothers Sylvia. What bothers us is the fact that Sylvia seems to think his recent performances should entitle him to a raise. He isn’t popular with fans, and he’s at least a couple fights away from another title shot. Meanwhile, Brock Lesnar probably generated 20 times his salary in UFC 81 pay-per-view buys. Supply and demand — it’s a bitch, buddy.

(Fedor feeding the geese, or catching them for his supper? You be the judge.)

We’ve heard from Randy Couture about all the shit surrounding the attempt to make the Fedor/Randy fight happen and the subsequent lawsuit spin-offs. And we’ve heard from Dana White almost daily defending his ridiculous position. Now we’re hearing from Fedor Emelianenko himself about the fight and Lex Luthor’s repeated public bashings of him. In an open letter to Dana White that was posted on m1mixfight.com, the site of Fedor’s management team, the Russian superstar let it all out.

As posted on MMA Junkie:

As Emelianenko wrote (keep in mind it’s been translated by a third party):

Numerous times have I read mister White’s statements on Internet concerning myself. In my opinion, allowing yourself to say those things is not a sign of a gentleman or a grown man at all! If he candidly wants to prove himself right then let my fight with Randy happen or let me face the reigning UFC champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. In the future I wouldn’t want to hear those statements in my address ever again and I won’t tolerate that.

My last fight in Japan proved that I’m ready to fight anybody with any height advantage, skillset or experience. I have fought and still wish to fight the best athletes. The Randy fight is my goal number one right now, he’s a great fighter and this is a very unfortunate situation when too strict and one-sided UFC contracts don’t let this fight happen.

The whole world is eager to see me fight your champions, people don’t want to listen to your press-conferences. I’m signed with M-1 Global and this promotion is ready to organize such fights under our banner or in co-promoted events.

Fedor wants to fight the best. For those out there who thinks he only takes mediocre fights, he wants to shut them up. But he didn’t sign with the UFC because of the restrictive contracts and Dana White’s business tactics. We all know Dana’s style. If you don’t want to play by his sometimes-absurd rules, he’ll make it his life’s work to kick shit on your name. And he’s tried to do that with Fedor and now Randy.

Yet again, M-1 is ready to make this happen. Fedor has penned a letter begging for it. Randy is willing to be sued in order to hold out for it. Dana, you blow.

MMA Fightline is saying that sources close to M-1 Global have confirmed the following:

…they received an offer from Art Of War to set up a fight between Fedor Emelianenko and Pedro Rizzo. M-1 was uninterested in the offer however and it was promptly rejected. No further details were given as to the reason.

There’s certainly got to be more to this story than a simple turn down. Maybe it’s the actual offer, because it doesn’t seem like M-1 has got something better in its back pocket. Pedro “The Rock” Rizzo is 16-7 and became the Art Of War’s heavyweight division champ back in September via TKO over the musically-challenged and horribly-tattooed Jeff Monson. Since this Couture thing looks miles down the road, The Rock would be a logical fight for Fedor – especially to the pea-brained nay sayers that say he never takes a tough fight.

(Business in front, death in back.)

I’m not very good with the Cyrillic alphabet, so I can’t confirm this myself. But various people are reporting that a post made yesterday on Aleksander Emelianenko’s Mixfight.ru page says Aleks will be fighting at an M-1 Global event in April. As one translation puts it:

Next bout of Aleksander Emelianenko will be held on April 11 in Chicago.

Currently we are negotiating for Aleksander’s opponent. Most likely it will be Josh Barnett.

Aleks won three bouts in 2007 by first-round stoppage, while Barnett hasn’t competed in an MMA event since his decision loss to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira on New Year’s Eve 2006; since then, the Babyface Assassin’s name has consistently popped up as the guy with the best chance of beating Fedor Emelianenko. It doesn’t look like M-1 wants to threaten its golden calf so soon — a loss for Fedor basically negates their reason for being — but an Aleks/Barnett rematch would be the next best thing. The two fighters previously fought at PRIDE Total Elimination Absolute in May 2006, where Barnett handed Aleksander one of his three career losses, a second-round submission via keylock. Keep your fingers and toes crossed and we might get to see Aleks have his bloody revenge.

Also of interest on Aleksander’s Mixfight page is the other “23 ?????? 2008 ?” post, which appears to be a rap song recorded by the fighter. You can listen to it here. Dude kinda sounds like a Russian DMX. Anybody who can translate the lyrics gets 1000 CagePotato Gold Stars, which can be redeemed later for Camel Cash.

An appropriately mysterious post was published yesterday on M-1 Mixfight, the Russian propaganda arm of M-1 Global. Titled “Fedor to Los Angeles,” it reads:

Fedor Emelianenko, Vadim Finkelstein and Apy Echteld will leave for Los Angeles on Thursday, 17 where they are going to meet with Affliction representatives. Also Fedor plans to meet Randy Couture there to discuss things in person. All the details of the meeting will be revealed soon.

Besides locking down Fedor’s involvement as a t-shirt model, those “things” they’ll discuss will likely include the details of their superfight-to-be. Finkelchtein (M-1 Mix Fight’s president, Emelianenko’s manager) and Echteld (M-1 Global’s VP of fighter development) could very well — dare we say it — be flying out to L.A. to sign Couture to an M-1 contract, which would surely provide the Natural with more freedom and at least as much money as his UFC contract (which, again, he’s not even close to being released from). Or at least that’s the rumor we’d like to believe. If Randy and Fedor are getting together just to see the handprints at Mann’s Chinese Theatre, do some roller-blading on the Venice Beach boardwalk, and hit up Knott’s Berry Farm, we’re going to be very upset.

More details to come…

Quote of the week, from Randy Couture via the Houston Chronicle:

“We got an official offer from M-1 to the UFC to do a co-promotion for the Couture-Emelianenko fight, and they (UFC) rejected that offer. Really, the only thing standing in the way for that fight right now is Dana and the UFC. Obviously, M-1 is happy to do a co-promotion like that. It only serves to help them. I think the UFC is looking at it the other way, and it’s like why do we want to help out another organization? The fans want to see that fight. At some point, you have to put that first.”