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UFC president Dana White talks to EdgeBoston.com about his longing to sign WAMMA heavyweight champion and arguably the top pound-for-pound fighter in MMA, Fedor Emelianenko. Since ZUFFA acquired PRIDE in 2007, a deal with the "Last Emperor" has long eluded the UFC and Dana White. Emelianenko is set to fight former UFC heavyweight champion Josh Barnett at Affliction's third event in August.
Emelianenko is widely considered the top heavyweight fighter in the world as he sports an impressive 30-1 MMA record, with his lone loss coming as a disqualification against Tsuyoshi Kohsaka in 2000. Emelianenko avenged the loss to Kohsaka at PRIDE: "Bushido 6" in 2005 and holds notable wins over Ricardo Arona, Renato Sobral, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (2x), Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman, Matt Lindland, Andrei Arlovski, Tim Sylvia and Mirko Filipovic.
“I would never cross-promote. Regarding Fedor, he either wants to come over and fight here or he doesn’t. If he came over and wanted to fight I’d do a deal with him in a minute. You know we’ve been chasing him since we bought Pride. In my opinion, I think it’s going to happen. He’d be crazy not to. I mean, why not? He’ll come over here and make a bunch of money and maybe even win the title and go down in history as the greatest heavyweight ever. The problem is it’s one thing for everyone to say it, I mean I can say, “Brock is the greatest heavyweight ever” but they have got to fight. It’s the only way to find out. We can argue about it all day but in the end you just have got to get out there and fight.”
http://www.fiveknuckles.com/mma-news...ventually.html
Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou talks to HDNet's "Inside MMA" about his recent behavior in the ring following a win over Jan Nortje at DREAM 9. Sokoudjou quickly defeated the South African by getting him to the ground before unleashing a series of vicious blows from top position. The referee called the fight, but Sokoudjou continued punching, landing a solid five or six hard punches to a downed Nortje before finally being pulled off. A brief fracas broke out afterwords, with both corners entering the ring, but was quickly dispersed.
Sokoudjou (6-4) who had lost two straight and three of his last four had described this fight as a "must win" and have let his emotions get the best of him. He'd recently been released from the UFC after going 1-2 with the promotion and lost his first fight outside of the promotion as well, that to Renato Sobral. His win over Nortje pushed him into the semifinals of DREAM's "Super Hulk" tournament where he'll draw Hong Man Choi, Ikuhisa Minowa, or Gegard Mousasi.
"There is no bad blood. Actually, he's a really cool guy. We met at the bus on the way to the hotel. We were always nice to each other. It's just one of those moments where, you know, I lost two fights in a row and I was in a state where I told myself, 'There's no way I can lose this fight.' I got him on the ground just like I thought I would do and I was pounding and I didn't want to stop. But I should have stopped. There's no bad blood. He's been nice. We've run into each other, and every time he's always been a gentlemen. I feel like a douchebag for doing it. I'm really sorry for it."
http://www.fiveknuckles.com/mma-news...t-DREAM-9.html
Matt Hughes addresses Rashad Evans' loss to Lyoto Machida via his personal website, calling into question the strategy employed by Evans through famed MMA trainer Greg Jackson. Jackson has long been viewed as one of the best tacticians in the game, but his gameplan for Machida has been called into question by many who believe that Evans played to Machida's strengths by not utilizing wrestling skills to press Machida and get him on his back.
"I went back and watched the Rashad fight again, and I think it comes down to bad coaching. In the prefight press conference, I heard Rashad say that he didn't bring anybody in who would resemble Machida's style. When I heard that, I knew that there might be some problems. That is probably a big reason why Rashad didn't do very well in the striking area. I also think Rashad should have been coached on using his wrestling talent. He didn't shoot one takedown that I can remember and he just made it a sparring match. If I was to coach Rashad against Machida, I would have told him to make it a fight, use his wrestling and groundwork to really dictate the match. Not just go out and spar with him. I think Rashad could have done a lot better in that fight. I'm not saying he should have won, but he's a lot better than he showed on Saturday."
http://www.fiveknuckles.com/mma-news...vans-loss.html