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M-1 released this official statement making the case for what could become the biggest heavyweight fight in the history of MMA.

The Statement:

M-1 would like to congratulate Brock Lesnar on his UFC heavyweight title victory as well as acknowledge Randy Couture’s return to active competition after a layoff that lasted over a year.

Couture and WAMMA heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko had publicly acknowledged a desire to fight each other multiple times over the course of the past year. While M-1 and Fedor remain interested in a match against Couture, we would also like to publicly state for the record that we would welcome a superfight between Fedor and Lesnar that would be held as a co-promoted event between the UFC, M-1, and Affliction Entertainment.

We’ve invited the media to speak with us today to not only make it clear we would welcome a Fedor vs. Lesnar matchup but to act in a preemptive fashion to address the possibility that UFC officials will try and position Lesnar as the No. 1 heavyweight in the world, much like they have tried to use a marketing ploy to brand Anderson Silfva as the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

In the past, UFC president Dana White and Zuffa, LLC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta have tried to claim that Fedor was “overrated” and that his “record was irrelevant.” They make these claims in spite of the fact that Fedor holds career victories over UFC champions past and present. While we have tremendous respect for the contributions Mr. Fertitta and Dana have made to this sport, we do not believe they are sincere in their statements.

It is the position of M-1 that the UFC has adopted an anti-Fedor policy because multiple attempts to sign him have not been fruitful. For a company that has tried to market itself as the number one promotion in the world, they are unable to accept the fact that the number one fighter in the world does not reside on its roster of contracted fighters.

We believe that the UFC has determined that it’s much more inexpensive for them to use their marketing resources to use smoke and mirrors to brand a fighter as the pound-for-pound best as opposed to actually paying the pound-for-pound best what he is truly worth on the open market.

While Brock Lesnar is an accomplished athlete and a talented fighter, we do not consider him to be the number one heavyweight in the world. Until someone beats him, we strongly believe that Fedor should continue to be recognized as the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. In a match between Fedor and Lesnar, we do not feel that at this stage Lesnar would be able to make it out of the first round.

For those who feel our statements in regards to Fedor are self-serving, we’d like to refer you to a video interview on the website RawVegas.tv in which at his UFC 91 after-party Couture himself acknowledges that “Fedor would probably tear Brock up at this point.”

Jerry Millen, M-1 Vice President

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“We would welcome a Fedor vs. Lesnar matchup, but to act in a preemptive fashion to address the possibility that UFC officials will try and position Lesnar as the No. 1 heavyweight in the world, much like they have tried to use a marketing ploy to brand Anderson Silva as the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world. In a match between Fedor and Lesnar, we do not feel that at this stage Lesnar would be able to make it out of the first round.”

– MMA’s “Baghdad Bob,” er, M-1 Global American Vice President Jerry Millen issues a statement via MMAWeekly.com regarding the likely result of a potential match up between WAMMA Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko and newly crowned UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar that will more than likely never happen anytime soon - if ever. Unsurprisingly, the Russian cyborg heaps praise on Randy Couture — the man who Lesnar defeated at UFC 91 — for his performance against the former WWE superstar during the interview. The two have quite a bit of history together. So too do White and Millen. It’s epic. Google it.

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FiveOuncesOfPain.com received an official statement issued by M-1 Vice President Jerry Millen regarding the promotion’s reaction to Brock Lesnar’s victory over Randy Couture this past weekend at UFC 91. For over a year now, Couture and WAMMA heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko’s names have been intertwined. In light of Couture’s loss, that potential dream match has lost [...]

There was another heavyweight champion that suffered a loss this past weekend. Lost in the midst of the Randy Couture vs. Brock Lesnar fight, Fedor Emelianenko dropped his first Combat Sambo match in eight years on Saturday night to a World Combat Sambo Champion from Bulgaria that goes by the name of Blagoi Ivanov. The bout [...]

A former WWE wrestler is the UFC heavyweight champion.

Fedor Emelianenko got schooled at the World Combat Sambo Championships.

Well now that we have two of the seven signs of the Apocalypse out of the way, we should probably go ahead and start sealing our doors and windows with duct tape and plastic wrap.

From Brock to Barack, there seems to be a transfer of power in every corner of the world. Fedor Emelianenko, widely considered the worlds top mixed martial arts fighter and king of Combat Sambo, lost to Bulgaria’s Blagoi Ivanov this past weekend by a score of 8-5 in the semifinals of the 2008 World Combat Sambo Championships in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Emelianenko and Ivanov first met back in February of 2008 at Russia’s Presidents Cup where Emelianenko outpointed the Bulgarian for his ninth straight victory in Combat Sambo competition.

Ivanov apparently used the experience to formulate a winning gameplan for their second encounter. Emelianenko was dominated from the outset and was in danger of losing 8-1 until the Russian scored a knockdown in the final minute of competition to add four points to his total.

In the end the deficit was too great to overcome and the former PRIDE heavyweight champion had to settle for a bronze medal, his first since the year 2000.

Emelianenko made no excuses for the loss, admitting that Ivanov beat him “Fair and square”, but this author wonders if Fedor’s time spent in Thailand filming “The Fifth Execution” with Michael Madsen and Rutger Hauer left him unprepared for the surging Bulgarian.

Fedor was still in Thailand as recently as two weeks ago and has also been making the rounds as Affliction’s media darling, promoting the upcoming reality series “Fighting Fedor” and his pending battle with Andrei Arlovski at ‘Day of Reckoning’ on January 24 in Anaheim, California.

Ivanov went on to win the gold medal after easily dispatching Germany’s Stefan Janos in the 100+ kg weight class.

Hopefully this loss will motivate him for his future match with Arlovski, who in addition to being a vicious striker, happens to know a thing or two about Sambo himself.

We’ll find out on January 24.

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Props: Boston Herald

Quoteworthy:

“The door is wide open. I want Fedor to come in and fight the best. At the end of the day, I’m a fight fan. That’s what I really am, and I want to see the best fight the best. Let’s find out if he’s the best. I want to do it…. I still feel the same way about Fedor [after beating Tim Sylvia]. I want to see Fedor fight the best in the world. People want to call him the best heavyweight pound-for-pound. Wait until he gets in and starts fighting some of these guys. I give him credit for fighting Tim Sylvia, but there are better guys out there than Tim.”

UFC President Dana White softens his stance, indicating that he welcomes Fedor Emelianenko as a possible addition to his heavyweight division. White and Co. worked hard to bring the Russian on board after the collapse of Pride FC; however, talks broke down when the parties could not agree on an exclusive fight contract. Emelianenko now competes primarily for Affliction MMA and is apparently locked in to a deal that would prevent him from competing in the Octagon anytime soon. Unless, of course, the upstart promotion falls on hard times in 2009 and beyond. Even still, it would be a minor miracle if Emelianenko ever signed with the UFC … he and his camp appear to mix like water and oil when it comes to working with UFC execs. Stranger things have happened, however. In the meantime, Emelianenko is penciled in to fight former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski sometime early in the New Year, which is a fantastic and highly anticipated match up.

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