STRIKEFORCE NEWS: Scott Coker says Fedor could still return as top alternate in Heavyweight World Grand Prix

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

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Despite a dominant beating at the hands of Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva on Saturday night that has him leaning very strongly towards retirement, Fedor Emelianenko may not be done in Strikeforce's Heavyweight World Grand Prix.

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker said after the fights that Emelianenko could potentially return as an alternate in the tournament should an injury occur.

"There's absolutely a possibility he could be a replacement," Coker said in comments made to MMAJunkie.com. "That's the beauty of the tournament. You don't know what could happen in the next leg of the tournament. As this tournament unwinds over the year, there could be an injury, and you could see Fedor back in the tournament."

This comes even though Strikeforce ran three tournament alternate bouts on Saturday night on Showtime, as Coker said Emelianenko could be the first to get that spot.

But there's another issue that could make that difficult should Fedor decide not to retire, as he was suspended indefinitely by the New Jersey State Athletic Commission due to the injuries suffered in his fight with "Bigfoot." At the very least, he is out 90 days without contact, which means he would not be able to return to action for this Grand Prix for likely five months at the earliest.

He would not be needed should the rest of the field go off without a hitch, but if a replacement is needed, Emelianenko may not even be an option at that point.

Link to Original Source Article

Penick's Analysis: With the way he lost last night, bringing Fedor back into this tournament field would go against what they're trying to accomplish with the Grand Prix. If they're trying to determine the "best of the best" in their heavyweight division, having a fighter who has lost two straight take a spot in the semifinals due to someone else being injured would be a travesty to the spirit of the field. They're certainly not offering to make Andrei Arlovski an alternate. Whether he's ready for it or not, Shane Del Rosario should get first dibs at an alternate spot for winning his alternate fight. After that, then Fedor can be in consideration, as Chad Griggs and Valentijn Overeem are not at the level of the rest in the field. However, if it leads to the potential spectacle that could be Overeem vs. Overeem, which both are open to should it come in the finals, then Overeem would be an acceptable replacement. But right now, Fedor's era is done, and what happened on Saturday could still happen again if he returns to action.

[Fedor Emelianenko art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/Affliction2/article_8452.shtml

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Source: http://fiveouncesofpain.com/2011/02/15/dave-herman-inks-deal-with-ufc-expects-summer-debut/

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M-1 GLOBAL NEWS: Showtime to air four M-1 Challenge events in 2011

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

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M-1 Global and Showtime have reached an agreement to air M-1 Challenge events on the pay-cable network in 2011, according to a report from MMAFighting.com.

Four M-1 Challenge events will air on Showtime beginning on March 25. That first card comes from the Constant Convocation Center in Norfolk, Va, airing live at 11PM ET.

M-1 Global's relationship with Showtime came to be through Strikeforce and Fedor Emelianenko. Emelianenko owns a 10% stake in the company, whose promotional side has run events for over a decade in different incarnations.

According to the MMAFighting.com report, the first Showtime event will be headlined by M-1 lightweight champion Artiom Damkovsky against Jose Figueroa. Also, a middleweight title fight is expected between Tyson Jeffries and the winner of bout between Plinio Cruz and Magomed Sultanakhmedov on March 5.

Link to Original Source Article

Penick's Analysis: M-1's most recent round of renegotiations with Showtime and Strikeforce for Fedor's services kicked up talks of getting this done, so they did good to get themselves onto the station. With just four events this year airing, they're not likely to gain a really strong foothold yet with Showtime, but if Showtime finds they can draw similar numbers as, say, the Challengers series events, M-1 can get more of their Challenge events on Showtime in 2012. What this means for Strikeforce remains to be seen, but M-1 successfully used their leverage with Fedor to get themselves a TV deal.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/Other_News_4/article_8515.shtml

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After Fedor Emelianenko hinted his illustrious career would come to an end following his convincing loss to Antonio Silva this past Saturday, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker and M-1 Global president Vadim Finkelchtein believed it wasn?t the last fans had seen of ?The Last Emperor.?  However, their motives for wanting Emelianenko to return are obvious. Watching [...]

Source: http://www.5thRound.com/68520/fedor-emelianenko-determined-his-own-fate/

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Source: http://www.fighters.com/02/15/unofficial-strikeforce-fedor-vs-silva-awards-fight-of-the-night-gian-villante-vs-chad-griggs

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Source: http://fiveouncesofpain.com/2011/02/18/former-marine-chris-davis-joins-bellator-season-4-light-heavyweight-tournament/

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STRIKEFORCE NEWS: Bigfoot's manager responds to psychic comments from Fedor's coaches

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

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Two of Fedor Emelianenko's coaches took a lot of heat on Wednesday when translated comments from Russian new reports made the rounds, featuring a number of ridiculous statements regarding Fedor's loss to Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva. Now, Bigfoot's manager Alex Davis has responded in the only appropriate manner.

If you missed yesterday's comments, here's what Vladimir Voronov had to say in an interview with Lifesports.ru.

"We believe that forbidden psychological technology was used," Voronov said in an interview with Lifesports.ru (translated by Fighter's Only). "It seems to us that not everything was right, and that certain technologies were used. Not ones that could be seen by the naked eye but psychological technologies that worked on both fighters at a distance.

"That is why during the fight Fedor was just not like himself. It seemed very strange behaviour from Fedor. He stepped into the ring and did everything exactly the opposite of what we practiced before the fight. We were all shocked! Fedor had never previously done such a thing.

"Now nearly a week passes, everything settles, and we understand why all this happened."

Now, M-1 Global's Evgeni Kogan made a claim on Twitter that it was a joke and that his comments were lost in translation. However, there have been others that have translated the comments from Russian that state nothing was lost in translation and that these comments were made to media at the airport when Fedor and his camp returned to Russia.

Here is Davis' response, posted on The Underground Forum:

"Jeez!! I got cought! I will have to come out with the truth now! I hired a Macumbeiro (Brazilian [witch doctor]) and we killed a black chicken on the cross roads. After this, over a few beers, I showed the witch Dr Fedor's fights, and he was worried that a chicken wouldnt be anough, so we went out and killed a black goat, just to make sure! Very potent stuff! Realy messed Fedors brain waves up!"

"We wanted to try that other military stuff Voronov is talking about,but its expensive technology and we were broke! The chicken and the goat came out way cheaper. Witch Dr is a friend, did it for a few beers and an autograph!"

Penick's Analysis: Davis' joke/mocking response was perfect. It's safe to say Bigfoot and his camp come out looking a lot better than Fedor's coaches. It was interesting reading Kogan's comments trying to downplay Voronov's statement yesterday, then later trying to clarify that Fedor's management and coaches are different entities, an attempt to distance themselves from the statements. Still, Davis hit the right chord with this one, and can bring some laughs to the situation after some ridiculousness out of Russia.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/Affliction2/article_8499.shtml

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