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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
M-1 Global heavyweight fighter Fedor Emelianenko has been out of action since a November victory over Brett Roger; and while there have been rumors and much speculation surrounding his next fight, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker told MMAWeekly.com that "The Last Emperor" will return this June in a fight against Fabricio Werdum.
Said Coker, "M-1 Global and Strikeforce entered into a three fight contract exclusive for Fedor to fight in a co-promotion between Strikeforce and M-1 Global, and as you know we did the first fight on Nov 7 in Chicago. Fedor is now scheduled to fight in June towards the end of the month in America against Fabricio Werdum."
The fight between Fedor and Werdum had originally been reported for Strikeforce's return to CBS next month on April 17, though M-1 Global officials have stated in recent interviews that they needed to adjust some things in the co-promotional contract with Strikeforce due to the way they felt their brand had been represented on that November show.
There is no date or location set for the June show that Coker discussed.
Penick's Analysis: While MMAWeekly posted this comment as a confirmation of Fedor's next fight, I'll wait until his name is on the posters and the fight is signed before I completely believe it. Fedor was all but confirmed to headline April's CBS card before this nonsense came about with M-1 about how they were represented on the CBS event and wanting to re-tool their deal with Strikeforce.
As Coker pointed out, they entered into a three fight contract. Somehow M-1 takes that to mean they can go ahead and change the terms of the deal after one fight because of something that was out of Strikeforce's hands, and that was the marketing of the M-1 Global brand for the CBS event. That's something on CBS and Showtime, as they are producing these cards and the production for the television events falls on that wing. And it wasn't as if Strikeforce had any better treatment from a brand stand point, with both being left as signage in the arena to the "CBS Saturday Night Fights" moniker that was placed on the show.
I hope this fight is next in line for Fedor, and I hope it leads to either a showdown with Overeem or a rematch with Rogers depending on who comes out of the May 15th event the victor, but for now anything involving Fedor is going to need a lot more than someone saying he's fighting at a certain time, even if that someone is Scott Coker.
[Fedor Emelianenko art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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