By Kevin Iole, Yahoo! Sports LAS VEGAS Fedor Emelianenko will defend his newly won World Association of Mixed Martial Arts heavyweight championship belt on Oct. 11 against Andrei Arlovski in the UFCs backyard. Afflictions second MMA promotion will be at the Thomas & Mack Center on the UNLV campus, in the shadow of the UFCs corporate offices, according to a venue official. Affliction made its promotional debut last Saturday at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif., with Emelianenko submitting ex-UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia in just 36 seconds. Affliction vice president Tom Atencio, who said Tuesday he hoped to nail down a site for his second show by the end of the week, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. But arena director Daren Libonati, who is a big MMA supporter, confirmed that Emelianenko will be back in his building. Libonati was instrumental in bringing the now-defunct PRIDE Fighting Championship to the U.S. for the first time on Oct. 21, 2006, with a show at Thomas & Mack that featured Emelianenko defending his heavyweight title against Mark Coleman. Were really excited to have Affliction in the building and particularly to have Fedor and all those other great names, Libonati said. I remember working so hard with all those people at PRIDE and the ultimate goal was to put on a show (at Sam Boyd Stadium, UNLVs football stadium) where the PRIDE champions would have defended their titles against the UFC champions. Thats what we were working toward in those two (PRIDE) shows we did back then, but it never worked out. We always want to bring big events here, and any time you have Fedor in your building you have a big event. Libonati said a formal announcement of the fight card would come later in the week. Source: Yahoo! Sports
On another note....Fedor will also fight in japan on NYE . Either against Overeem or Crocop. (depends on who'll win the fight)...I think it'll be for the hw DREAM belt. or maybe he'll fight against Couture but i doubt it. Whatever happens , we already know that he'll fight in japan on NYE.
Should be a good one. With UFC 89 (18th) and UFC 90 (25th) both in oct lets see what UFC do this time round to compete with affliction.
:happy:happy:happy:happy Fedors getting ready to kick ass again! Told you DREAM`s the new PRIDE!!! :happy:happy:happy Oh yeah Fedor by armbar in the 1st.
I've been out of the loop for a while, guys... What happened to the proposed Fedor vs Couture match up? I thought Randy was waiting for his UFC contract to expire, then was keen to fight Fedor when he was a free agent?
I am probably the only person who doesn't want to see this yet. I have always liked Arlovski and I would like him to go on a big run of good wins before getting destroyed again.