Alexander Emelianenko Unlikely Headed to the UFC Soon
Posted by UFC Junkie on August 20, 2007 at 3:49 pm ET
Alexander EmelianenkoDespite the UFC's recent influx of heavyweight talent -- including Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Fabricio Werdum -- one fighter that probably won't be added to the mix is Alexander Emelianenko, a top-ranked heavyweight and the younger brother of MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko.
Emelianenko, who owns an 11-3 career record (including a 6-2 mark in PRIDE Fighting Championships), recently discussed his fighting future with the site mixfight.ru, and the Russian made no mention of the UFC as a possible destination.
According to the translated interview:
Q: Hi, Alexander. I'd like to know in which mma-events you are going to participate, how and where you prepare for them?
A: I train in St. Petersburg in the Red Devil team. At the moment there are no fights planned for me. There are some negotiations going on about my next fight in Japan, maybe even in September.
The fact that the UFC didn't come up in the conversation isn't surprising. Although Alexander's brother Fedor has been in constant communication with the UFC about a possible contract, Alexander's name has only surfaced when Fedor's manager said he wants some of the fighter's Red Devil teammates -- including Alexander -- also signed to contracts.
UFC president Dana White recently stated that he's in contact with Fedor's management daily, but as of yet, no deal has been signed (or even rumored to be close to completion).
Alexander appearing to be afterthought in the process is a bit surprising, considering he's a legitimate top 10 or 15 heavyweight in the world. White has said he wants the UFC to have the world's best fighters (and he's delivered quite well in recent months). With previous wins over UFC fighter Assuerio Silva, Sergey Kharitonov and James Thompson, Alexander would be just that.
Questionable talents aside, Alexander is an ex-con, so the work visa acquisition would be an additional overhead, on top of whatever other ridiculous contract stipulations Finkelstein is after...
No, I was mainly just avoiding getting into an argument where you would chase your tail trying to explain how the HW division is weak with Big Nog, Filipovic, Arlovski, Coutoure, Werdum.
Since you're the type of person that has to use name-calling because they can't think of anything valuable to add.
All you said was the HW division was weak.
You didn't even specify UFC, you just said HW div.
You argued that there couldn't even BE a top 10 list- something which absolutely reeks of ignorance.
You didn't even specify UFC, you just said HW div."
He's right though... For years we had this pride driven expression that Pride HW's were better... What's happened??? CC KO'd, Verdum beaten, Nog looking like shite... There's truth here. Vera out of the game, Couture taking out the #1 in his first fight back...
And he didn't say the HW's are shit, however the HW div is weaker right now than it's been for a while, and it is indeed hard to rank them.