wow, this is such a farce.... This is what they're doing with the best HW and possibly the best P4P fighter in the world?!?! gawd it's like having Dr. J play in the ABA! <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>The recently restructured M-1 Global organization is teasing a new weekly TV reality series called “Fighting Fedor,” in which 16 heavyweight prospects will take part in a tournament-style competition. The winner gets a fight with the organization’s biggest (and right now, only) star: famed Russian Fedor Emelianenko. The video was posted on www.mix1fight.com, a news site run by Emelianenko’s management in partnership with M-1 Global. No debut date or broadcast partner for the series is revealed on the site, though, and MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) was unable to immediately confirm details of the show with M-1 Global. However, according to details released in the video, the show will use a familiar format. “M-1 Global is embarking on a journey across four continents to find MMA’s best young heavyweight contenders,” the video’s narrator states. “Sixteen fighters will travel to St. Petersburg, Russia’s Red Devils Sports Club (where Emelianenko trains), where they will open their doors to American television cameras for the first time. From there, the fighters will spend the next several weeks living together, training together and fighting each other in a full-contact mixed-martial-arts tournament — the likes of which have never been seen on American television.“ (Viewers of “The Ultimate Fighter,” the UFC’s hit reality series that airs on Spike TV, may disagree.) M-1 Global was recently purchased from Emelianenko’s manager and restructured by a group of American investors. The company’s first order of business was signing Emelianenko to a long-term deal back in October, and the organization has been on the hunt for heavyweight talent to fight the famed Russian ever since. M-1 Global will likely hold its first event in Chicago on May 3. The 31-year-old Emelianenko, who held the PRIDE Fighting Championships’ heavyweight belt for more than four years before the organization’s eventual demise this past summer, owns a career mark of 27-1. Although he’s defeated some of the most notable fighters in the sport — including current UFC fighters Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and Heath Herring — he’s fought few (if any) top-tier guys in recent years. Emelianenko recently turned down an offer to fight exclusively for the UFC, saying the contract was too restrictive.</div> now this "the likes of which have never been seen on American television.“ made me LOL
What better way to gloss over the fact your star is fighting tomato cans than to distract everyone with a tournament to see who his next opponent is? Fedor is getting less and less relevant. Too bad that such a talented guy seems to be under the thumb of exploiters. Apparently Fedor's manager is a big time puppeteer. They talk a lot of shit about Dana White, but I don't see Mixfight negotiating with Gary Shaw, Mark Cuban, Jay Larkin, the boneheads from Cage Rage, or any other promoters about getting Fedor fights. They just want to leech off of the UFC without having Fedor pay his dues with the company first.
