MMA Weekly broke the story, but MMA Convert boils it down to these handy bullet points:
- First "joint venture" will likely take place on Jan. 24 at The Honda Center in Anaheim, California. The main event will feature Fedor Emelianenko vs. Andrei Arlovski.
- Second "joint venture" will likely take place in April or May and feature Josh Barnett vs. Aleksander Emelianenko (unclear if this is planned as a main event). M-1 is confident Aleks will be issued a license to fight. His rumored medical issues have apparently been resolved. No indication if this card will include boxing.
- Fedor’s thumb is fully healed.
- M-1 confirmed Fedor will definitely NOT be fighting in Japan on NYE. We can all breathe a collective sigh of relief.
- Gegard Mousasi may fight in Japan on NYE, but remains "a very feasible" option for Affliction’s January event.
- Affliction and M-1 have signed an exclusive worldwide deal with Fedor. So definitely no Fedor vs. Randy in the UFC. (Like that was ever going to happen anyways)
Also there's supposed to be a press conference today at which The Donald Trump will announce his involvement in the Fighting Fedor reality show.
About the only thing I'm counting on coming out of all this is that Fedor WON"T be fighting in Japan on New Year's Eve. I would't hold my breath waiting for Aleksander vs Josh Barnett.
In other Affliction news, Sherdog says they're apparently about to sign a Matt Lindland vs Babalu Sobral bout. It'll happen at 195 as a test for Babalu to see if he can fight at middleweight. Should be interesting, but if Babalu is going to move down to 185, I'd rather he just do it instead of crowding Lindland's resume with yet another non 185lb fight.
Meanwhile, M-1 fighter Gegard Mousasi is looking to move to 205lbs but hopefully he'll fight Vitor Belfort or Akiyama at 185lbs first. From Sherdog:
A rumored bout with former UFC standout Vitor Belfort is still a very real option for Affliction’s Jan. 24 return to the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. Belfort, who recently dropped into the middleweight ranks himself, took out Terry Martin with an impressive second-round knockout at Affliction “Banned” last July.
“My manager has good contacts with Affliction and he said that there may be the possibility for me to fight Vitor in the United States,” said Mousasi. “I really want to fight for Affliction, but I still have a commitment with Dream, so I don’t know exactly which show I will be competing at next –- on New Year’s Eve in Japan for Dream or for Affliction in January.”