Fedor Emelianenko will make his first-ever trip to New York City to announce his future plans in mixed martial arts on Monday, October 22, which will more than likely include his intentions of fighting under the M-1 banner.
Vadim Finkelstein — the manager for Fedor Emelianenko — recently sold the Russian promotion to an unknown “major American investor.” It’s been the subject of heated debate and will hopefully be clarified at the swank Manhattan office of fashion designer, Marc Ecko.
Here’s the snip:
“Fedor Emelianenko, the most sought after MMA fighter in the world with a record of 26-1 with one no-contest, will be in New York City for the first time to announce his decision on which professional fighting organization he will join. Fedor, as he is known by the millions of MMA fans, has been heavily recruited by many fighting organizations. Fedor is recognized as the best and most feared MMA fighter on the planet.”
The decision of the PRIDE FC heavyweight champion to not fight inside the Octagon sent shockwaves through the mixed martial arts world, leading to the resignation of reigning UFC Heavyweight Champion, Randy Couture. “The Natural” mentioned a desire to fight Emelianenko as one of the primary reasons for his departure.
Lucky bastard, er, Jesse Holland from UFCmania.com intends to attend the 5:30 p.m. event. We hope to have a full report of the press conference right here on Monday evening.
"Ohio's awesome," Dana White was saying. "If you walk through our home office (in Las Vegas), all the screen savers are pictures from Columbus. We went up into the stands and took aerial shots. Incredible.
"When we were (at Nationwide Arena), we broke every record the venue had. We were No. 1, and No. 2 was the Rolling Stones. If you look all over the country where we've been, we're No. 1, the Rolling Stones are No. 2."
"I attribute it to the fact that this is the most exciting combat sport in the world," he said. "We have all the flair and entertainment value of professional wrestling, yet it's real like boxing. That's what really makes this so enticing. We haven't even scratched the surface of how big this thing is going to be.
"Do you know how many people are fight fans? That's something we're all born with. The thing is, who's the baddest guy on the planet? We've all been intrigued by that since the beginning of time. Throughout history, from John L. Sullivan to Mike Tyson, we've always wondered who's the baddest man on the planet. And realistically, these guys are the baddest men on the planet.
"Take four corners of the street," White went on, pointing through the Westin windows at Fifth and Vine. "In one corner over there, they're playing some basketball. In this corner, they're playing some stickball. This corner over here, they're playing street hockey. A fight breaks out on the fourth corner. Where does the crowd go? Even the guys who are playing will stop playing to run over and watch the fight. There's just something in us that we enjoy fighting."
"The thing that people had trouble with," White reflected, "is when one guy's down and the other guy's on top of him pounding and pounding. The way we were raised and brought up is with old John Wayne movies. You don't hit a man when he's down. John Wayne would stand him back up and hit him again. That's the way we were brought up to think and believe. But all these martial arts countries get it.
"Take two guys, put them in the octagon, and they can use any martial art they want? That breaks all the cultural barriers. We're selling out arenas in the UK. This thing is so big in Japan, 100,000 people show up for the events. We're going to be the first company to do global Pay-Per-View."
In case you would like to know who I want to win on this card.
Rich Franklin (Team Gurgel and obvious reasons)
Brandon Vera (Like his fighting style and very exciting)
Jorge Gurgel (my instructor and Team owner) Going to be a great fight!!****Alvin Robinson is tough.
Stephan Bonnar
Kalib Starnes
Forrest Petz (I used to train with Forrest in Cleveland when I first started training. He has heavy hands and is a great fighter. He trains at Team Strong Style in Independence, OH..near Cleveland.)
UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva has not been able to enter the country yet due to visa issues. He is expected to defend his title against former champion Rich Franklin at UFC 77: Hostile Territory this Saturday. Sources close to Silva, have stated that he had planned to be in town by now (most fighters arrive four or five days before in event in order to acclimate) but he's facing delays in procuring a visa.
According to MMAWeekly, government offices in Brazil were closed this past Friday and Monday due to a holiday, and thus delayed Silva's visa being issued. He evidently did receive the visa on Wednesday and hopes to arrive in Cincinnati on Thursday, giving Silva two days to adjust if all goes well.
Rich Franklin has a lot to think about going into his October 20 rematch with Anderson Silva at UFC 77. Not only does he have to face the man that dominated him on the feet -- where Franklin's usually at his best -- and handed him his first loss in nearly three years, but he also has the pressure of fighting in front of his hometown crowd in Cincinnati, Ohio.
So it's no wonder that Franklin decided to head out of town and train somewhere far away -- venturing all the way to a small town in Wyoming -- to get away from the distractions of the local media.
While his usually brutal training regimen hasn't changed much, the change of scenery has helped him focus.
"For this fight I took an entire camp out of Cincinnati," Franklin says during a recent media conference call. "It was very distracting being in my hometown. So we left my hometown, came out to the mountains, changed some altitude. I brought Matt Hume out to work with me which is something to an addition as well as the coaches that I've been working with. And we've made some changes and that's a little bit better."
He adds, "There's a lot of local media and things [in Cincinnati] that were taking up my time. But being out here in Wyoming where it's a small town and I'll tell you what, honestly there is not anything to do out here but train. So, you know, we basically train each week and then train again. And we're very focused."
Of course Franklin is no stranger to handling media obligations with the sport's recent surge in popularity. While he doesn't believe that interview obligations have affected his previous performances, Franklin knew the additional hometown buzz would be difficult to ignore.
"The amount of PR work that I had to do for [UFC 68 in] Columbus was a lot in comparison to something that I would do when I was fighting in Vegas. And the difference is that even in Columbus I'm still an hour and a half away from that city," Franklin says. "Here everything is in my backyard. So even if I don't pick up the phone and stuff like that, I still have media outlets showing up to workouts and fans coming in and stopping by and things like that. And all that stuff becomes a distraction so. It's just, it's easier to get out of town and shut it all down than it is to be there."
Besides the remote training location, Franklin has also spent more time studying Silva's recent fights and putting together a strategy. Many observers noted how unprepared Franklin looked for Silva's dominating Muay Thai clinch in the first fight, and Franklin is working hard to make sure he doesn't get overwhelmed this time around.
"I think that in the initial fight, at the time I believed that I put the amount of time that I should've to study him, and I didn't," Franklin says. "So we've done a lot better job this time breaking down film and everything."
That's included looking at Silva's title defenses against Travis Lutter and Nate Marquardt. Silva dispatched of the usually durable Marquardt in the first round and beat Lutter -- a respected Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt -- at his own game, submitting him with a triangle choke in the second round. Now Franklin knows that Silva's submissions could be just as dangerous as his striking.
"I think that Lutter's a great ground guy and I think that Silva showed some resilience on the ground," Franklin says. "A lot of people might think that his ground game is his weakness but that's not necessarily so. So I think that watching the Silva, or watching the Lutter fight obviously showed that he's definitely versatile in all aspects of the fight game."
Franklin won't be holding anything back against Silva
Having faced Silva once before and studied the Lutter and Marquardt fights, will Franklin forego his usual striking-first strategy and try and outwrestle the champion? It's possible, but Franklin isn't going to be gun shy.
"I'm going to walk out there and start throwing punches like I always do," Franklin says.
"And of course I have a game plan, but ultimately I'm just going to take the path of least resistance, and if that means keeping it up, fine. If we end up on the ground then that's fine as well."
Given Silva's recent impressive performances, including his dominating win over Franklin, the current middleweight champion is considered a strong favorite by many to keep the belt. Although Franklin isn't intimidated, he did have to do some soul searching after losing his title and getting his nose broken by the Brazilian.
"You just sit, honestly, you just sit after the fight, and I did a lot of staring out the window wondering where I went wrong and what happened and why," Franklin says, reflecting on his loss to Silva. "And you keep asking yourself why and why and why. And you could do that for days and days upon end and really you just come to the same conclusion you came to before you even thought of the question anyway which is pretty much nothing."
This rematch isn't necessarily about the championship or proving the doubters wrong, though. Franklin wants to erase his previous performance against Silva and prove something to himself.
"[It] wouldn't matter [if this fight] was for a belt or not. Anderson right now is number one in the weight class and obviously you always want to look to fight some of the best, [and I'm] aiming for the best. And for defeating me the way that he did, I think that [I'd] definitely like to get back in the ring, [and] not just to prove something. That's not my motivation, but just to try to set things straight in my own mind."
