Fedor to face Monson in February

Report: Jeff Monson Possibly Facing Fedor Emelianenko in February

Posted by MMA Junkie on October 27, 2007 at 8:00 am ET

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Ten-year MMA veteran and former UFC fighter Jeff Monson (23-7 MMA, 4-3 UFC) says he may be the first fighter to face noted heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko (26-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) under the M-1 Global banner.
Monson made the comments while speaking to Boa Athu for a Sherdog.com report.
Earlier this week, M-1 Global — a new organization born out of the former Russian-based M-1 Mixed Fight promotion — held a press conference to announce a new ownership group, its newly minted CEO Monte Cox, and the signing of what is arguably the No. 1 fighter in the world, Emelianenko.
At the time of the press conference, Cox stated that additional signings would be made in the next couple weeks, and based on comments from Monson, he may be one of them.
Monson confirmed that he’s in talks with M-1 Global and that there’s a “very good possibility” that he’ll fight Emelianenko in his first fight with the organization. During Monday’s press conference, Cox said that Emelianenko would headline their first event. A date hasn’t been announced for the event, though M-1 officials believe it’ll happen as soon as February.
The 34-year-old Monson last competed for the UFC during an unsuccessful title fight against Tim Sylvia at UFC 65. After that unanimous-decision loss, he scored a first-round submission victory over Kazuyuki Fujita at PRIDE 34 before suffering a third-round TKO to Pedro Rizzo at a Sept. 1 Art of War event.
Emelianenko, who owns a near-perfect 26-1 record, has posted victories over many of sport’s top fighters, including Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, Mark Coleman, Mark Hunt and Matt Lindland. He held PRIDE’s heavyweight title from March 2003 until the organization’s eventual demise a few months ago.