Came across another recent Fedor Emelianko's interview from from his official site posted on 08/08/2008. Cool date!  He talks about finding religion, his entrance song and a few other interesting things. Read on for details.

Correspondent: Fedor, first fight according to your contract this year took place. It became one of the fastest out of Your stellar record. Did You expect such a desicive victory over Tim Sylvia?

Fedor Emelianenko: I never exect when a fight is going to end and can never tell ahead of time what is going to happen. Of course, I do want it to end as soon as possible, though I always mentally prepare myself for a long and gruelling fight.

Correspondent: Traditionally fighter's entrance is accompanied by music. This time it was a complete surprise a complete surprise when you came out to a kazak song "Stepan Razin's Dream" (Son Stepana Razina) , better known as a fold song "Oi, to ne veter" (Oi, that's not wind). What made you choose it, and who was it performed by? MMANinja's Note: as Fedor said he had father Andrei record it for him. From little searching that I did I found a version sung by a folk band. Download it here.

Fedor Emelianenko: It was my choice, I really like the song. With God's help I met a wonderful man - a priest from Nizhnii Novgorod father Andrei. When I heard him chant prayers and sing this song, I asked him to record it for me and he agreed.

Correspondent: After the fight cameras zoomed in on a moment when Your coach Vladimir Voronov placed a cross on you. You haven't had it that long. Are you a person of faith?

Fedor Emelianenko: Yes, I'm a person of faith and recently my life has changed, I will try to live my life according to God's teachings...

Correspondent: First step back to church many people make after something happened: serious illness, loss of a loved one, other tragic events... What was the reason for you to make that decision?

Fedor Emelianenko: When I met father Andrei, all my doubts left me...After being around this man, I realized that its the only right way. Through father Andrei God brought me to people who helped me realize how I used to live and how I should live going forward.

Correspondent: A disappointing incident from your last fight became an injury: a broken thumb, the same one that You already had a surgery on, put a metal plate on and so on, it happened again...According to international standards, after a fracture you can not even talk about fighting until after half a year. Does that mean that in 2008 You will not be able to fight?

Fedor Emelianenko: In reality, I don't feel a lot of pain, hand is healing and I'll hope that everything will work out. My next performance is planned in November: Combat Sambo world championships will take place in St. Petersburg.

Correspondent: Do you have plans to participate in "Affliction-2" in October?

Fedor Emelianenko: I would like to take part in "Affliction-2", but I'm not sure yet if it will happen.

Correspondent: Your younger brother Alexander was going to participate in the last "Affliction" event. What was the reason for him not being allowed to fight? Many fear if the same situation will happen at the next event?

Fedor Emelianenko: I can't comment on the situation. Alexander was in fact barred from performing from some blood tests. That's why I can't really say anything.

Correspondent: Last few years you have not trained with your brother. He moved to St. Petersburg and your training, mostly, takes place in Starii Oskol. Any plans to resume training together?

Fedor Emelianenko: It's more convinient and better for me to train in Starii Oskol. That doesn't work for Alex. From what I understand from his recent interviews, he likes it in St. Petersburg and he isn't planning to go anywhere for training.

Correspondent: A considerable group of fans went with you to America. How important is that for you?

Fedor Emelianenko: For me, of course, it's important to have people close to me, who always support me, worry about me and pray for me. I wish all of them could come with me, but none the less it was great to see guys who cheered for me at the event.

Correspondent: Are you planning to fly to Beijing to support russian athletes?

Fedor Emelianenko: Unfortunately, they way things are working out I will not be to go to Beijing. But I wish I could.

Correspondent: One of the organizers of the "Affliction" event was world famous make of stylish clothing, gothic style. You came out in an "Affliction" t-shirt as well. Do you prefer such "brave" style?

Fedor Emelianenko: I prefer a more simple style in clothing. Though I do really like "Affliction" clothes, it's comfortable. And on my t-shirt there was nothing that was against Russian orthodox, so I came out to the ring in it.

Correspondent: In one of your recent interviews we spoke about a project "Fighting Fedor". Are the participant already picked? When will it start?

Fedor Emelianenko: That's a question for Vadim Finkelstein - he leads that project. I don't know the exact time frames.

Correspondent: What are your plans for the near future?

Fedor Emelianenko: I am leaving for America to participate in a press conference. I will also be negotiating with "Affliction" company.

Check out and learn Fedor's MMA style from his new book:  Fedor: The Fighting System of the World's Undisputed King of MMA

I didn't get a chance to do quick picks for last few UFC events, but the picks are back. Here they are this UFC 87: Seek and Destroy. Obviously St. Pierre vs Fitch, Lesnar and Roger Huerta vs Kenny Florian are interesting fight, but the rest of the card on paper is so so for me.

Cheick Kongo Vs. Dan Evensen - Kongo was kinda ripped off in favor of no talent hack Heath Herring in his last fight but showed some improvement in his ground game and I think came away with a few lessons from the fight. That's all that matters in a close loss like that and Kongo will be better off. Evenson fought in Bodog several times but hasn't beaten anyone of note. UFC's heavyweight division is lacking right now so they're bringing him in to feed to Kongo. Picking Kongo by KO

Luke Cummo Vs. Tamdan McCrory - should be a fun fight as both of the guys have decent standup and like to push the action in their fights. Picking Tamdan McCrory based on his better record of winning against better fighters and his reach.

Jason MacDonald Vs. Demian Maia - another fight that has the potential to be pretty exciting from the ground game perspective. Both MacDonald and Maia's previous victories were exciting finishes. Picking Maia by submission.

Manny Gamburyan Vs. Rob Emerson - Rob Emerson has actually faced several good guys like Pulver, Vasquez, Mishima in his MMA career prior to his appearance on the Ultimate Fighter TV show. Gamburyan has gotten on a few win streak, both by submissions, since list injury loss to Nate Diaz. Seems like Emerson has had issues with good ground guys in the past, so I'm picking Manny Gamburyan by a few very hard rights, takedown, some pounding and submission.

Kenny Florian Vs. Roger Huerta - after watching UFC 87 Countdown and watching the Roger Huerta segment all I can say is wow. What a story! It's amazing what he has achieved coming off his childhood experiences. He was lucky to have had the people that helped him get on his feet, but his hard work and determination kept him on course. This completely throws out his image of happy go lucky mexican college kid who's fed easy fights. Come on, Clay Guida is an easy fight?

Onto Kenny Florian. He is very intelligent and established himself as a lifelong learner of MMA. His dedication and motivation to be the best has been showing in his recent fights. With that said, I think Huerta's has more power and faster pace, so I'm picking Roger Huera by an exciting decision.

Brock Lesnar Vs. Heath Herring - picking Brock Lesnar to give Heath Herring a retirement beating. Straight right, takedown, vicious ground and pount till TKO.  Herring still sucks on the ground after 11 years of being in MMA. This will be much like Jake O'Brian's domination of Herring, only Brock Lesnar will do killer damage.

Georges St-Pierre Vs. Jon Fitch - the event will start in a few minutes, so I'm out of time. Picking Georges St. Pierre by a clean win over the blood and guts of Jon Fitch in a long exciting and gruelling fight!

Out of all the Yahoo! Sports MMA section newly minted MMA "experts" I always considered Dave Meltzer to be the best out of the bunch as he's been around MMA for a while longer than the rest. Most of the time, if I have time, I usually just quickly scan over their MMA coverage as they're often pretty bland and biased and plain bad...cough...Kevin Iole anyone?...cough...cough.

So when Dave Meltzer's Lesnar faces must-win against Herring article showed up on Yahoo.com's front page today I had to check it out. After quickly looking at it I felt compelled to comment on some of the points and errors in his article.

 "Lesnar can’t afford a second straight loss on a major pay-per-view event and still be considered a long-term main eventer."

First of all, Brock Lesnar hasn't been a main eventer in UFC yet. His UFC debut fight with Frank Mir felt like one though because of how much popularity he brought to the UFC from his WWE days and stellar NCAA background to go with that. He can very much afford a second straight loss on a major PPV event also because he, in my opinion, lived up to the hype of being incredibly athletic and fast for his size and most importantly that he put in some hard training and looked very very good for being so inexperienced in MMA. He handily beat on Frank Mir but got caught by a much experienced fighter in a possibly debilitating, however not quite there, submission and didn't want to risk a long term injury. He only made more MMA fans with his loss and created more hype and anticipation as to what he can really do in MMA. He is also a natural competitor and it will be very hard for anyone to turn a fight with him into a boring affair. So he can afford 3-4 more exciting losses with no problem for his UFC popularity at all. But that's not going to happen, he is not losing at UFC 87 - not to the sloppy Heath Herring.

Meltzer then proceeds to comment on the fact that because Brock Lesnar came in at a higher salary of guaranteed $250,000 a fight another loss could really ruin his UFC career.

"The others have been given lower or mid-level opponents to start out with to build their reputation. UFC decided that with what they were paying Lesnar, there was going to be no such slow grooming process."

Honestly? With how many PPV buys Brock Lesnar brought in with his first fight, $250,000 a fight is nothing to UFC at this point for a celebrity of sorts.  They'd need not even 6000 extra PPV buys to recoup that salary. He brought in quite a bit more than that. Come on, they just got done paying Brandon Vera nearly the same for one of the worst fights this year against a mostly unknown wrestler.

"Texan Herring has 41 pro fights over the past 11 years, in nearly every major organization. He became a star in Japan at the age of 22, and has been in the ring with a Who’s Who list of the greatest heavyweights of all-time."

"Herring, a big star during PRIDE’s heyday in Japan when he was known as “The Texas Crazy Horse” for his unique multi-colored hair, noted he’s beaten men bigger than the 6-2 ½, 277-pound Lesnar, as well as higher credentialed wrestlers. He’s best known for a 2000 win over Tom Erikson"

"Herring (28-13), is known for being difficult to finish; he went the distance twice with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in their three meetings, after being submitted the first time. But he was beaten by his most famous opponents in Japan, by Cro Cop from strikes on the ground, and by Fedor Emelianenko due to blood."

Brock Lesnar isn't in much danger facing THIS Heath Herring. Yep. The same Heath Herring who showed his true skills against Jake O'Brian, who couldn't finish Brad Imes (where is he now anyways? Still doing gogo-platas at some tiny shows?), who questionably beat Cheick Kongo. 41 pro fights in the past 11 years and he never amounted to anything in nearly every major organization, besides amuzing Japanese fans with his stupid hair cuts.  His supposed wildness or crazyness only amounts to the fact that in 11 years of fighting and training here and there, he still looks as sloppy and amateurish as he did during his "wild days" of wearing leather cloaks for his fight entrances. Lesnar will retire Herring from UFC by beating him in the first round. 

Why is Meltzer talking a loss for Lesnar when he's fighting Herring? Herring hasn't submitted anyone in 5 years, let alone anybody good ever. Sorry comparing his wins over wrestlers 7 years ago doesn't make much sense. He hasn't KO'd anybody in 2 years. What he has done is get dominated on the ground by a ground game newbie Cheik Kongo and got completely tooled by a much smaller Jake O'Brian. Given all that and an enormous amount of sloppyness, Brock Lesnar's chances to lose are minimal.

Also, Nogueira submitted Herring in his second fight not first and what does "by Fedor Emelianenko due to blood" mean? I share Fightlinker's sentiments in how sad it is that Yahoo's Sports MMA has some of the biggest audience out there, especially when they often get to the front page, but their MMA coverage is being done either by very inept people with not much clue about MMA and the fact that they're very biased and often inaccurate.