Affliction 2 Day of Reconing turned out to be a good sophomore effort in my opinion. None of the main card fights went to a decision and most fights turned out great with definite outcomes. If you read my Affliction: Fedor Emelianenko vs Andrei Arlovski picks you know I missed the mark on some of the picks, but I have real good explanations though, I swear!

 

So, I'm going to get the negatives of the show right out of the way because it was mostly good and this can be just nitpicking, though a lot of casual fans agreed with me on these:

• Tito Ortiz is a dumbass. He embarrased Affliction at the pre fight press conferences and continued on with crappy commentating and post fight interviews. You can put lipstick on a pig, it'll still be a pig though. I don't know if he completely blocked out his embarassing exit from the UFC but he was very pretentious in his comments through out the show. I wonder if Donald Trump got him the gig. He is a joke and I hope he get a shot at Babalu so Babalu could embarras him yet again and send him off to whereever Sokoudjou will go. WEC?
• The "Rabid" commentator that went behind the scenes to show Babalu relaxing before the fight and kept calling Babalu "intense" and "rabid". Too bad Babalu was yawning throughout. Where the hell did he come from? Get rid of that joker!
• Extensive public display of poor Matt Linland's waking up after a brutal KO. On thing UFC does good if someone get badly KO'd is not show their wake up process until the fighter is ok and can stand on his own. There was no reason to show all that, especially when it was clear that Linland wasn't waking up well at all. 

On to the good of the show.

• Production was just fine. There were plenty of replays and the show moved along at a good pace.
• John McCarthy - I was very happy to see him and that he is still an active MMA referee. I guess his retirement was only from UFC.  Good for him, I'm sure he is being treated better and doesn't have to deal with Dana White. That along be huge in my book!
• The "Fight Quest" alumni was a decent commentator and should definitely be a mainstay for Affliction.

On to the fights.

Paul Buentello vs Kiril Sidelnikov  - well I was right about one thing, just cause you can hang with Fedor in training doesn't mean you can beat everyone else. Sidelnikov also did not take it to the ground where he most certainly would have done better than Buentello. Why? He only tried for one takedown and it was when it was already too late for him in mid round 2. With a big debut like that, his coaches let him down or may be he just didn't listen to them. I am also questioning his training. Was he just helping Fedor with Fedor's fight and getting beat on by Fedor mostly, or was anyone actually helping him train for his fight? I'm leaning towards the first. Hopefully next time when the Russian promoters pretend they're in it to promote other younger fighters, they actually bring a huge camp of fighters to Starii Oskol, if that where Fedor must train, and concentrate on their improvement and preparation and not just Fedor.

Buentello did ok but seemed to be very apprehensive about throwing more than just a jab. He won so that's all that counts for him. Superstar he is not though. Beating an overweight Fedor's very young training partner is not exactly impressive, especially on the heels of three round decision over Gary Goodridge. Who decisions Gary Goodridge? Not a lot of fighters, they usually beat him very quickly.

Renato "Babalu" Sobral vs Thierry Sokoudjou - this one I was exactly right about. If there was any doubt that Sokoudjou had a few great wins early but folds everytime the going gets tough, he folding to Babalu should have cemented his lack of heart and ability to keep any stamina past round one. Yet again another example of how he gives incredibly hard time to Team Quest luminaries like Dan Henderson, but that doesn't mean he can beat other guys. Not sure where he goes from here, he may get another chance in Affliction, may be. If it's anyone decent, he may very well choke again. Then what? Japan? WEC if he is lucky?

Babalu leveraged his experience and weathered everything Sokoudjou had for him and easily took over in round two. It was pretty painful to watch him going through "show and tell" D'arce choke drill in the middle of the fight cause his opponent just sat there already given up. Great win for Babalu and his confidence. I guess stupid Tito was challenging him during the post fight interview. I think it'll be a good fight for Babalu, what can Tito do to him? Babalu's punching is better, wrestling is probably better and definite edge in submissions.

Vitor Belfort vs Matt Linland -Matt Lindland didn't get a chance to out work Vitor Belfort like I thought he would. Belfort took advantage of the very first exchange and Linland's striking weakness. A precise left straight from Belfort put Linland on the floor and Belfort did great capitalizing on the downed Linland. Four punches later fight was stopped with Linland laying almost lifelessly on the floor except for the uncontrollably shaking left leg. He got cought and should have been way more careful than rushing in with his weak sloppy striking against some one like Belfort.

Though the fight didn't show much, Belfort did what he had to do and didn't waste a single opportunity to exploit Linland's weakness. He looked fast, precise and showed good reflexes to get in there and finish the fight. It was interesting to see K-1's showman Ray Sefo in his corner.  Nice to see him keep sharp.

Josh Barnett vs Gilbert Yvel - wow, what a huge disappointment! Barnett looked aweful! Three rounds to finish a huge underachiver and non-crosstraining lazy striker in Gilbert Yvel!? Barnett's corner should have left him in the ring to celebrate his disappointing win by himself. He disrespected their time and efforts by just sitting on top of Yvel for almost 2 full round and not finishing him. What was that? How dared he do his "throat cutting" win gesture after that? Anyways, if he thinks he has a chance against either Fedor or Arlovski with that type of fighting....he probably doesn't though. I just hope he can snap out of his depression in time to get good training in before those fights. Oh, and how stupid was his excuse/give away about his poor nose bleeding and making him choke? I think very. Watch his nose being busted first thing in any of his future fights.

Gilbert Yvel was the winner in my book. Not like a winner in a sense that he'll amount to anything after this display of toughness. But he kind of redeemed himself for all those cowardly times he tapped out at the first sign of trouble. If only he was this tenatious when he was younger and more popolar.  May be he earned another fight with that? Gilbert Yvel vs Paul Buentello? That could actually be a good fight, given how Buentello has self admittedly never initiated a take down in his whole career.

Fedor Emelianenko vs Andrei Arlovski - News flash!!!!! Fedor again looked very beatable and human! This isn't really news by now, is it? Definitely not. 

• Fujita had Fedor sliding on ice when he rocked him
• Nogueira reversed him and got on top
• Coleman had his back and was on top
• Randleman damn near killed him when he slammed him on his head
• Mirko CroCop bloodied him up and landed a bunch on him
• Mark Hunt out of all people was  on top
• Hong Man Choi stuffed his takedowns

He almost always looks beatable. Well in this fight against Andrei Arlovski he looked very beatable again. Arlovski was bigger, a little faster and was actually landing some glancing shots. Why was it such a big deal though? Because Sylvia didn't land any? CroCop did, Fujita did, Mark Hunt did. It's a fight, you're going to get hit! But as long as you don't get rocked or KO's or get hit too many times it's ok. That front kick that Arlovski landed towards the end that pushed Fedor back looked ok, but it wasn't like it doubled Fedor over.  I'm sure that if the fight went on longer Fedor would have adjusted to Arlovski's timing and would have found his rhythm.

Arlovski's jump for the flying knee was aweful! Looked like he was going to do an olympic board diving jump. WTF was that? Per his own words he truly did dump his chance down the toilet. Fedor stood calm and capitalized on the first opportunity Arlovski gave him and finished the fight. Is that his magic? May be.

All I know is that I can't wait to see it again. Affliction together with it's great allies in Trump and Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Productions should strike again while the iron is still hot and promote yet another Fedor headliner event. Hopefully in another six months. I wish they wouldn't give Barnett a chance at Fedor because while it will be entertaining I think it won't have that "this is the fight Fedor may finally lose" type hype. Arlovski vs Fedor 2 would garner more attention and may be Arlovski won't go to boxing just yet. Arlovski is just so much more marketable than Barnett - he is Russian, very hairy, thick beard and those vampire/werewolf teeth gimmick will just sell tickets and PPV buys. We'll see what happens. Until then Fedor is KING!

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 just HAD to find time to writing at least something about this card/fight. I can not wait till tonight and am really hating the anticipation. It really doesn't matter how the fights turn out because of the fact that Fedor is fighting again just few months after fighting Sylvia and is fighting a legit threat in Arlovski.

HD Net put tugether a pretty good, not great, "get to know Fedor" show "FEDOR: The Baddest Man on the Planet". It was good to have a few fighters that have fought Fedor and give him credit that he never takes himself. I was disappointed with the fact that there really wasn't that much "new" footage. A lot of the Fedor footage was taken right out of Pride FC's "Champions" series they did on Fedor, Nogueira, Sakuraba and Silva. BUT... this is one of the few Fedor specials that actually had him LAUGH. That's right, Fedor actually laughs and it was great to see some type of emotion out of him. If you missed the show on HD Net, go visit Afflictions website and watch their promo videos, they're pretty much the gist of the whole Fedor show and you get to see some Arlovski training as well. AND if you watch the press conference, you'll get to see the surprize "superstar" that Affliction unfortunately decided to deal with, Tito Ortiz, make a total fool and tool of himself and Affliction too. The dumbass can't even read a fight card and as usual reiterated to everyone that he can't present himself in any other manner other than pound his chest before fights and then get embarrased by his inability to fight any good. Thank you Lyoto Machida! You gave me one of the most satisfying experiences when you exposed Tito Ortiz for what he is - a one dimensional never-improving hack. I just hope Affliction didn't spend a lot of money on him or sign a multi deal contract. Who's next? Ken Shamrock, just for Tito?

Oh and I just found out that Fedor apparently has an instructional book too, Fedor: The Fighting System of the World's Undisputed King of MMA, though I haven't seen it yet. Onto the fights though, besides Fedor vs Arlovski there are a few good fights that are kind of compelling to see.

Jay Hieron vs Jason High - Jay Hieron has been on a tear in IFL and looked great. Training at Xtreme Couture's has been great for him, as it is for any other fighter. Picking Hieron. (really though I just haven't seen Jason High fight. If he beats Hieron, he'll definitely be on everyone's radar)

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs Vladimir Matyushenko - hmm, kind of a tough one for me. Matyushenko rediscovered his MMA career in IFL and looked great recently. Noguiera on the other hand had a decent run in Pride but hasn't really shined. His brother's disappointing catatonic performance against Frank Mir (who's delusional by the way, Brock will TKO him and then break his leg off and then eat it) is kind of weighing on my judgement here, they're twins you know. I think the style that Nogueira's developed and used recently isn't cutting it any more and Matyushenko will hit harder standing and will most certainly get on top and then ground and pound him for decision. Picking Matyushenko.

Paul Buentello vs Kiril Sidelnikov - one of the things that kind of surprised me is that, at least according to the HD Net Fedor special i mentioned earlier, Kiril Sidelnikov is Fedor's main training partner.  It's great for Sidelnikov on one hand because training with someone better than you always make you improve more, especially Fedor. On the other hand though, many times training with someone much better than you all the time may give you a false confidence. It has happened countless times before, a fighter comes from a huge famous fight camp and is fighting another fighter from a barely known camp. Then the fighter who's sparring partners are guys that don't even fight beats a fighter that can kinda hang with a group of pro fighters. I really hope that it will not be the case for Sidelikov. He's striking looks a lot like Fedors and ground will definitely be better than Buentello's, given his success in Combat Sambo tournaments. Buentello won't be a push over, his striking is dangerous and his KO's are a pretty good testament to that. Picking Sidelnikov by being smart and taking it to the ground.

Renato "Babalu" Sobral vs Thierry Sokoudjou - Sokoudjou made a huge splash in Pride FC's 205 division by KO'ing two top guys at the time, Rogerio Nogueira and Ricardo Arona. His UFC's showings however quickly took the air out of the hype he quickly build for himself in Pride. Powerful and athletic he appears to be lacking stamina and heart. Picking Sobral to weather a few hard kicks and punches from Sokoudjou early on and take over by whatever he wants, striking or submissions.

Vitor Belfort vs Matt Linland -  No matter how ugly sometimes Linlands fights turn out, I've always respected his tenacity, will to win and willingness to cross train. His striking may never be beautiful, but his jiu-jitsu is coming along very nicely. Too bad he lost a few years of fighting because of the self absorbed Dana White and is getting up there in age. Belfort's been hot and cold for years now and while still young will probably never get up to the hype level he initially garnered. Picking Linland by outworking Belfort and breaking his will and body. Hopefully beating Belfort will get Linland a couple more good and high profile fights.

Josh Barnett vs Gilbert Yvel -  Barnett finally avenged his loss to Pedro Rizzo in a so so fight. Barnett did pretty damn good in Pride FC's last heavyweight Grand Prix getting to the finals, especially after a long stint in japanese pro-wrestling. So another win is a win. Affliction must have spend a bunch of cash on Barnett liking his quirky personality and are giving him a gift fight to set him up with the winner of Fedor vs Arlovski.  Yvel has near zero chance to beat Barnett, if Barnett just takes him down and doesn't goof off standing up. Picking Barnett with one hand behind his back.

Fedor Emelianenko vs Andrei Arlovski - historic fight this may be not, but a huge mega fight it sure is! Everyone is waiting for Fedor to finally to succumb to the reality of MMA - everyone loses and it's ok. There are just too many variables and ways to win that at some point you get caught. This will be a tough fight. Arlovski looked great against Rothwell, but I really think Rothwell made Arlovski look good. Sometimes certain bodytypes/styles make the same fighter look better than others. After his second loss to Sylvia, Arlovski didn't look all that great against Jake O'Brian, PeDepano or that other boring brazilian dude that trains with CroCop that made Gonzaga give up before their fight even started. So one fight where Arlovski kinda let go and looked like the former aggressive self made him into the guy that can beat Fedor? Almost everyone that fought Fedor could have beaten him, not that Heath Herring hack though. Even Tim Sylvia, while not landing a single shot on Fedor, still had a good chance of beating him. It just hasn't happened yet. Arlovski does look awesome in training, very fast, he's got a new famous boxing coach. Fedor? Fedor still trained in Starii Oskol with a handful of trainers and Kiril Sidelnikov who he just beats on. He's just special like that. I'm picking Fedor to beat Arlovski after Arlovski will put up a pretty good fight, though I think it will go to the ground where Arlovski isn't that good and Fedor really shines.

I also have to say that it's VERY PETTY of UFC to run Brock Lesnar vs Randy Couture's UFC for free tonight on Spike. D$ck move. I'm sure fans are getting tired of all the UFC cards one after another and are itching for some even a little different. I think Affliction will pull through this and continue on their decent card and if they manage to have Fedor on each one, they'll be even better. I'd always pick Fedor's PPV vs Rich Franklin or Henderson, no offense to Rich.

 

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

Fedor Emelianenko just had an amazing weekend at Affliction's Banned event completely overwhelming Tim "The Lame-iac" Sylvia with some vicious punches and winning WAMMA  Heavy Weight title.  He made a big splash with his win at the event and various MMA news media, took pictures with Donald Trump and other celebrities, wore Affliction shirts all around Las Vegas and as Dave Meltzer said he "turned into an undisputed reality" the myths of his skills and might.

You know though, he's already been there, done all that numerous times. Who hasn't been thinking for a while now that his streak just has got to end!? Everyone. He's looked vulnerable so many times, not against Sylvia obviously, but yet his opponents just can't seem to be able to take advantage of those opportunities to beat him.

Anyways, back to my point. He's been there, done that - winning big titles, beating dangerous fighters and proving many wrong. But what Fedor's also done recently, while training for Sylvia, is join the ranks of well educated MMA champions. Just a little over a month ago he defended his Physical Education diploma with "Methodology for developing of strength abilities in training samboists of 13-15 years of age" at Belgorod State University. What usually happens at the "diploma defense" is the student reads their final work on a selected topic in front of a panel of professors and then answer their questions on anything at all that has to do with the topic. No multiple choice here, you have to know your stuff!

Also same little tiny write up mentions that Fedor may get to use his education and experience at the still in construction Academy of Fedor Emelianenko in Belgorod to coach professional fighers. It'll be a really hot MMA training spot for sure.

It's amazing how Fedor managed to keep true to himself and still live in a tiny city, a little aparment and with how rich and famous he is, still finish a Physical Education degree. Congratulations to Fedor and his achievements outside the ring. More Pictures from his "diploma defense".

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

I really hope Lorenzo Fertitta is calling Dana White right about now, starts off with a huge sigh of disappointment and says:

"I should have quit my casino job about a year ago. --another sigh-- I just watched Affliction's , as you called a T-Shirt company's, PPV event and I gotta ask you Dana, W..T..F... Better yet, How TF did you F that up? Why wasn't this a UFC card? Crazy Russians you said? Who cares if they wanted a few bum Red Devil fighters bundled with Fedor? So what? We have bums fight all the time in UFC! I mean, take tonight for example! I wish you didn't have that black mail on me, so I could Fn get rid of your rude "personality" and non existent negotiation abilities. Did you see Arlovski? Did you see Barnett? Did you see Fedor? WTF Dana!"

Anyways, as of now I only caught the few last fights of the event and in short it was awesome!

• John McCarthy is one of the most elloquent commentators/interviewers ever and who comes with the unmatched experience of being "in" the most fights ever. He was always good in interviews, but he was great as a commentator. Why didn't UFC add him on their commentating team?
• Production Quality - who cares!? It's about the fights for me, but I liked the whole "boxing like" atmosphere and the production was pretty good for a first event.
• Celebrities - Affliction by far beat UFC Fight night in this category. UFC had like what? Usher and some basketball dude who was texting instead of watching fights. PFFFFT! Affliction had like a whole part of the show where they showed Donald Trump and announced like over ten+ other celebrities. Say what you will Dana, but "T-Shirt" companies do pretty good with celebrities cause they like "all the cool kids are wearing it" t-shirts.
• Josh Barnett is one the top guys at heavy. It was a pretty good fight and he knocked Pedro Rizzo out cold with a hook ala Roman Zentsov, in a sense that Rizzo fell the same way after a hook. After the fight he said he wanted to avenge his loss to Rizzo from 7 years ago, I don't believe it though. Come on, Rizzo used to be tough, used to. He had way too many knock outs in recent years and since this event was Barnett's return to US and a big deal, he played the revenge angle to get an easy fight. No matter, he'll take other top competition after this warm up.
• Andrei Arlovski was awesome in his third round TKO victory over Ben Rothwell. Arlovski was the agressive fighter he used to be during his UFC heavyweight champion days. He did it all, flurries of puches, kicks, flying knees and leglock attempts. Rothwell did ok for a while but Arlovski kept a fast pace. Rothwell did have a good chance to do some damage after Arlovski's failed leglock attempt, but didn't take full advantage of it.
• Donald Trump is a pimp and I'm glad he's somehow involved in Affliction's  or WAMMA's or whatever event. He was all up Lennox Lewis during last apprentice because he likes fighting. So hopefully he can make an impact in MMA too, especially if this event was any indicator of what may happen in the future.
• Many thousands of Afflictions shirts in one place was making me dizzy. I hope they can scale back on requiring everyone to wear them, especially Fedor's old coach. It was just wrong.
• Fedor Emelianenko is freakin awesome! He yet again proves everyone why he is the number one heavyweight fighter in the world! Cause he is Fedor, that's why. Again when everyone is doubting his chances against an ugly huge and dangerous monstrocity in Tim Sylvia, an effective UFC representative in this case in my opinion, Fedor comes out and punches Tim Sylvia with such ferocity and speed that Sylvia falls where Fedor follows up  to punch him some more, take his back and choke Sylvia out! Fast, furious and easy. About 30 seconds is all it took to dispose of Dana's boy. Dana's next best boy is Noguera who Fedor already beat 3 times!

The stars lined up for Affliction's event tonight, the fights turned out great and they shut Dana's big mouth up with Barnett, Arlovski and Fedor having awesome performances. I don't know who else they have on payroll as far as fighters go, but I'm willing to bet there will be many fighters trying to get involved with these guys. I hope Affliction made good money or please investors to do another event or more.

Oh, ya, I almost forgot a minor happening at the event.  Fedor Emelianenko vs Randy Couture does actually look like a possibility, cause Fedor said he's interested and Randy came out to say he is too and called Fedor a TOVARISH. He messed it up, but at lease he tried. Respect was the aura of that face off. I can't wait for it and will definitely be buying it. If you consider yourself an MMA fan YOU should too, even if you split it with your buddies that's ok too.

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

  All the cool kids are reporting it MMA Junkie and MMA Mania, FightLinker and CagePotato, so I thought I'd spread the word about it too since these news are brand spanking new!

 

Without any warning or even preceeding rumors, M-1 Global pulls a rabbit out of a hat and presents everybody with teaser video about their upcoming reality show about 16 heavyweights will train and fight each other for their one and only shot at fighting THE Fedor Emelianenko.  The 16 fighters will do all the training and fighting at the Red Devil fight club in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The video made it sound like the show will actually be aired on American television, but I didn't see any clues as to when or where. They used the guy that voices over all of the American movie trailers to give it more credibility I guess. The video was mostly a compilation of Fedor highlights and previous M-1 Global/Bodog promo clips.

Well, this is interesting and came out of no where. I guess it's a good strategy to promote M-1 Global brand and their 1 and only, so far, big name - Fedor Emelianenko. This definitely worked for UFC, so I don't see why another show based in exotic Russia with the goal of getting a chance to fight this enigmatic undefeated Russian heavyweight champion wouldn't  work as well as the Ultimate Fighter Show worked for UFC. Run the show, promote the hell out of Fedor's accomplishments, give him plenty of face time and have him fight in the finale.  They may even recoup some of the 2 million dollars per they'd be paying him in TV ads money.

Definitely interesting how this will pan out. What do you think?

MixFight.ru posted a photo gallery of the Red Devil team members from 2008 Russian Combat Sambo Championship. There are pictures of Kirill Sidelnikov, who fought in PrideFC and who Fedor speaks very highly of as someone to watch for out of Russia, Dmitrii Samoilenko and Fedor Emelianenko doing a quick seminar between the fights.

The photo gallery is here.

MixFight.ru also put a video of a lighter Red Devil fighter Mihail Zayats's fight in the finals for the 90 kg weight category. Mihail Zayats is wearing the RED gi top (kurtka).

 

Head over to MixFight.ru to catch Fedor Emelianenko's championship fight at 2008 Russian Combat Sambo Championship.

It's hard to believe that the other guy was the finalist of the tournament. He looked awkward and couldn't muster anything more than half hearted jabs and an awkward knee.

This was way too easy for Fedor. I'm sure everyone there was disappointed with the obvious disparity in skill. I'm sure it was fun for Fedor though.

Yesterday I translated a little new blurb from Fedor's official website on what's next for him and his participation in Russian Combat Sambo Championship, but forgot to check mixfight.ru to see if they posted anything on it. And they did post a picture gallery of the "Red Devil" team preparing for the championship.

Today was the first day of the championship and there is an article on the results at mixfight.ru but it's only in russian. Here is what it says:

The first day of Russian Combat Sambo Championship took place today at St. Petersburg's SKK.

The Red Devil club was represented by 4 fighters in two weight classes.

In 90 kg weight category, Victor Nemkov confidently started his bout versus Alexei Veselovzorov, dominated in stand up, then did a throw for 4 points, but after the throw lost concentration and gave up his hand, which an experienced and skilled fighter like Alexei immediately took advantage of by armbar for the win. Victor Nemkov continued to fight in the cancellation bracket and in the fight for the third place he knocked out his opponent with a knee.

Another fighter from the Red Devil club - Mihail Zayats, who quickly won in the two fights prior, met  Veselovorov in the semi-finals. The semi-final bout between these two fighters turned out to be tough and difficult, but with every minute Mihail confidently kept gaining advantage and won in the end before the time was up.

In the finals of this weight category, Mihail outpointed Vyacheslav Vasilevskii from Krasnoyarsk and became the Russian champion.

Fedor Emilianenko and Alexandr Kosarev participated the over 100 kg weight category.

It was Kosarev's debut in a tournament of this level and in the fights with more senior and more experienced fighters he looked rather confident. Having won his first fight by knockout, Kosarev met Stanislav Shushko and was confidently leading the bout with 5-0 score, but then by accident while advancing forward he was leg tripped from standing to his back and the referee awarded "clean" victory to Shushko. In the cancellation bracket Alexandr knocked out another opponent and for the fight for the third place his opponent forfeit due to injury.

As predicted, Fedor Emelianenko easily won all of his three fights.  None of his opponents in this Russian championship forfeited as it has happened before in world and European championships, to the credit of our fighters.

In his first fight, Fedor quickly attacked, after a combination of strikes he took his opponent down and submitted him. The fight was 35 seconds long. His second fight was even shorter - Fedor broke his opponent's nose on the 10th second.

The final fight against Stanislav Shushko took a little bit longer. Stanislav tried to keep Fedor at a distance using his height advantage, but Fedor closed the distance with a combination, went for a throw and a holddown. Then the fighters ended up in standing position again and the situation happened again - a combination of strikes from the champion, a throw, but this time Fedor finished his attack with a submission and won at 1 minute and 1 seconds.

In the breaks between fights Fedor was surrounded by a crowd of fan and the champion did not refuse anyone his autograph or taking a picture with him.

The winner of  the 74 kg weight category was a very experienced fighter, who is well known in Russia and outside - Vener Galiev. He, it seemed, out matched his opponents in all aspects, finishing all his fights decisively and beautifully.

At the opening ceremony Vladimir Voronin was awarded an honorary title of "Deserved coach of Russia". We congratulate him definately DESERVED award.

Those are the results of the first day of the competition.

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Well, first of all, Russian Sambo fighters are apparently have a lot more courage than some of their international counter parts and were not afraid to face Fedor no matter the out come. Cool.

Second, nice to see Fedor win all of his three fights. It still surprises me that the sport that produced him cannot give him any meaningful competition, yet. At the same time it's neat to see him being so commited to his national sport and trying to make it popular. It was one of the things he was looking forward to when he mentioned it in his recent interview.

Another surprising thing to me was that an equivalent of a Judo Ippon still has it's place in the Combat version of Sambo and can end the fight.

I'll keep you updated if anything else comes up about it.

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

This was posted on Fedor's official website fedor.bel.ru yesterday but only in the Russian section so I thought I'd translate it.

Fedor Emelianenko will participate in Russian Combat Sambo Championships.

The Championships will take place on February 7th and 8th in sports complex "Peterburgskii" (St. Petersburg)

Bit of history, the first combat sambo championship in USSR took place in Leningrad(St. Petersburg) in 1939. 56 athletes participated in it. Now, there are Combat Sambo clubs and schools in 53 countries around the world.

This championship will gather top athletes from practically all regions of Russia. As far as St. Petersburg's team "Red Devil", besides Fedor it will be represented by: world Combat Sambo champion Dmitrii Samoilov, all Russian Combat Sambo champion Kirill Sidelnikov (both of these athletes are from Starii Oskol, Emelianenko's hometown), finalist of all Russia Combat Sambo championship Mihail Zayats, master of sport Andrei Lisitsin, candidate for master of sports Alexei Cherepovskii, and also Radmir Gabdullin.

Russian Championship - isn't the only competition that Fedor Emelianenko will participate in next two weeks. On the 15th of February in Moscow in sports complex "Luzhniki" President's Combat Sambo Cup will kick off.

Let us remind you that Russian Federation President's Combat Sambo Cup was established by head of the government Vladimir Putin on 20th of March of 2006. Russian Federation President's Combat Sambo Cup will be awarded to a team - winner of the yearly tournament organized by RosSport and Russian Sambo Federation with giving away his smaller copy.