This weekend, Fedor Emelianenko met with the media and fans as a part of his visit to the M-1 Selection: Americas tournament semi-finals. Questions ranged from a possible return to Japan for a New Years eve show to the heavyweights participation in the movie “The Fifth Execution.”

However, the one question that appeared to be on the mind of those in attendance, “What does the future hold for the number 1 heavyweight in the history of the sport.”


Early in the conference, Emelianenko fielded the now cliché question regarding his interest in fighting for the UFC. “ For now (we) M-1Global works with Strikeforce and we are concentrating on that, the contract is not over yet. So for now we don’t have any interest in the UFC. ” To further cool speculation and questions on the subject Emelianenko als made reference to statements by UFC president Dana White, in which White insisted he was not interested in signing the fighter.

“The relationship between ourselves, Strikeforce, and Showtime is a good one, we had a great event in June in San Jose, and we look forward to more good events with our partners.” added M-1Global director of operations Evgeni Kogan.

When asked about media reports that focused on tensions between M-1Global and Strikeforce, Kogan has this to say, “The issues stemming from the Nov 9th show were ironed out and we all took a lot of positives from San Jose. Now we are in talks to extend the contract for Fedor and at the same time to settle on who, when and where he is fighting next. These talks are going smoothly and we are hopeful of a full resolution very shortly.”

When asked, “How many fights?” he had left, the Russian superstar was very candid and specific in his response “so far I feel very comfortable fighting, very good with my fighting, and I’m planning of fighting as long as I can physically. As far and I’m concerned we should discuss the possibility of signing another contract for 4-6 fights.”