BodogFIGHT Signs Fedor!

[Oh Furious One]

Fedor Emelianenko, the consensus top fighter in the heavyweight division and widely regarded as the best pound-for-pound mixed martial artist in the sport, has agreed to fight in St. Petersburg, Russia, on March 3, sources inside the Bodog front office confirmed to Sherdog.com Friday.

With one bout remaining on his Dream Stage Entertainment contract, Emelianenko is scheduled to defend his PRIDE heavyweight belt in Japan versus Mark Hunt on New Year's Eve. While a clause in Emelianenko's current deal allows the Russian to compete in his home country, one Bodog source indicated that the well-financed company intends to sign Fedor to a long-term deal.

Considering Bodog's working relationship with Fedor's Red Devil Fight Team, from which eight fighters will compete on bodogFIGHT's initial pay-per-view Saturday in Vancouver, this revelation is not all that surprising.

At a minimum, Bodog has inked a deal with Fedor to fight March 3, likely versus recent UFC championship contender Jeff Monson. Also on the card, which will be broadcast on worldwide pay-per-view, both via the Internet and television, Sherdog.com was told that Aleksander Emelianenko will fight Antonio Silva, should the Brazilian heavyweight defeat Eric Pele Saturday.

This is very interesting news, especially if he loses to Hunt at the NYE show next month. Not that there is much of a chance of this happening, but with the suspect financial troubles of PRIDE, who knows where that could lead.

The most interesting part for me is that they want to sign him long term, whether that means he would exclusive or not is another story. If Fedor actually did leave PRIDE, which is extremely unlikely, you would hope the UFC would be all over it like white on rice, especially with their HW division.

 

[Presti_is_god]

Apparently the owner of Bodog is a billionaire and doesnt care about making money. He's going to be offering huge money to anyone, Nick Thompson mentioned big names being signed or close to signed in an interview.

I hope any deal he signs isnt exclusive or we will miss out on some great fights while the talent pool is scattered over a few companies. Fedor is in the position to make demands with no exclusivity so i cant see him being restricted to Bodog anyway. Great news though, I think with Bodog, the new showtime promotion and worldfighter we could see some big names moving around.

 

[drew_j]

Thanks for the update. Will have to start looking at events outside UFC, Pride, K-1 etc I supose. Knew it would happen

 

[Oh Furious One]

Make sure you give the IFL and ICON some love. They’re looking very good for the future of MMA.

 

[Presti_is_god]

Make sure you give the IFL and ICON some love. They’re looking very good for the future of MMA.

Yeah, i love the whole IFL concept. Hopefully we will have an Aussie team one day. These 2 companies arent stupidly rich like bodog though. Dont forget WFA too, they have some big names, But who knows with their finances..

 

[Magnum]

Has anyone seen the BodogFight reality show? I was going to download it but there site was so slooow.

 

[Oh Furious One]

Dont forget WFA too, they have some big names, But who knows with their finances..

I’m not confident about WFA, that’s why I didn’t mention them. They’ve only had four shows, and two of those were what, four years ago? The one they had scheduled next week got canceled too, which is disappointing. How can they remain credible with this happening?

I don’t know, man. I’m not expecting much from them. They have a good roster with some quality fighters but you need to be able to put up events. All this talk that they will or have gone bankrupt, I won't be surprised if it’s true.