Results tagged “M-1” from MMA Explosion

This Sunday at the Joffa Shrine in Altoona, PA, Aaron "King Kong" Anspach will be making his Mixed Martial Arts Professional Debut against John Armstrong. Also fighting from LionHeart will be Lou Armezzani who will be looking to take his professional record to 4-1 when he faces off against Tenyen Dixon.

The door open at 5pm and the fights start at 6pm.

For tickets please contact either Aaron or Lou:

Aaron Anspach
ama236@psu.edu

Lou Armezzani
loujitsu@gmail.com

www.vflmma.com for more information.

Also fighting on the card are 6X NCAA Wrestling Champion and former Pittsburgh Steeler Pro Bowler Carlton Haselrig and local MMA Standout Charlie Brenneman.

Ted: word is Haselrig is out of the fight, suspended by the New Jeresey State Athletic Control Board.

Special "Meet & Greet" before the fights from 5pm to 6pm with UFC Fighter Frankie Edgar!!!

Mo Lawal

Gegard Mousasi

This from mmajunkie.com: As expected newly crowned Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi (26-2-1) will, in fact, defend his belt at Strikeforce's Nov. 7 event, which airs on CBS.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) recently reported that Mousasi was expected to be part of the Chicago-area card, and the M-1 fighter today confirmed his participation with M-1global.com.

No opponent has been named for the fighter.

And this from bloodyelbow.com: Though it was reported last month that (Kevin) Randleman could clash with hot prospect "King" Mo Lawal, it's now rumored that Lawal passed on the fight in favor of a Strikeforce date with Gegard Mousasi.

Hollidaysburg, Pa. native Charlie "The Spaniard" Brennman missed his August fight in Amsterdam with M-1 when he re-opened a cut he suffered during his last fight at Iron Will Fighting, said sponsor Jerod Phillips, of Tap or Sleep.

The cut, which required seven stitches to close, will no doubt be healed for Charlie's next fight, his second for Valley Fight League. The Oct. 11 event is called Broad Avenue Brawlers 2 and will be held at the Jaffa Shrine in Altoona. The event poster, as you can see, has Charlie, who is 8-1, in a title fight (I'm guessing at welterweight), but does not name an opponent.

Strikeforce CEO Coker sees endless possibilities
Partnership with M-1, DREAM could make promotion a legitimate threat to UFC
By Andy Samuelson

In order to land highly sought mixed martial artist Fedor Emelianenko, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker had to do something UFC brass wouldn't budge on -- letting the Russian star's M-1 Global fighting organization co-promote events.

Now it seems Strikeforce is ready to stretch its global stage even farther, announcing after Saturday's historic Carano vs. Cyborg event that the San Jose-based MMA promotion is working on a deal with the Japanese DREAM organization to co-promote events both in the U.S. and Japan.

"In Strikeforce, we're committed to putting on the best fights that we can," Coker said. "They have a lot of great fighters in DREAM, and we'll be able to test the best fighters in Strikeforce against the best fighters in DREAM.

"Hopefully we'll be in Japan doing a co-promotion in relatively short time."

This is a great highlight with some awesome music, worthy of The Last Emperor.

Scott Coker, Strikeforce CEO, on Tapout radio recently talking the Fedor signing (thanks to Bloodyelbow.com):
- I'd like to see Brett Rogers, Fabricio Werdum and Alistair Overeem against Fedor
- We have an alliance with DREAM.
- We are talking about having a card with the best of DREAM, K-1, M-1 and Strikeforce (Manhoef vs. Lawler or Aoki vs. Thomson).
- This will be the first time you see Fedor fight in a cage.
- We'll have an opponent named by a press conference on Thursday.

Also, Frank Shamrock had this to say on his Web site: "welcome fedor! strikeforce has the number one rated mens and womans fighters in MMA. with the upcoming 8-15 event we are once again making history and moving the sport forward.

congrats to tito for showing his true colors and getting back in the UFC; nice to see him back with his father dana white."

frank

By Loretta Hunt, sherdog.com:
Fedor Emelianenko has signed a multi-fight agreement that will see the world's No. 1-ranked heavyweight compete for Strikeforce, the promotion announced Monday.

Emelianenko, who became a free agent after Affliction Entertainment canceled its Aug. 1 event two weeks ago, will make his debut on Showtime under a co-promoted Strikeforce/M-1 Global production this fall. Emelianenko was to have faced Josh Barnett at Affliction "Trilogy" on Aug. 1, but Barnett failed a pre-fight test for an anabolic steroid and was refused licensure by the California State Athletic Commission.

"Strikeforce is a top fight promotion that houses some of the greatest fighters in the world," said Emelianenko in a press release. "I am prepared to fight any of them."

Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker told Sherdog.com last week that he plans to match the stoic Russian against the likes of Brett Rogers, Fabricio Werdum and the promotion's heavyweight champion, Alistair Overeem.

"I feel pretty confident that we could give him four or five opponents that would make sense for him," Coker told Sherdog.com in an exclusive video interview.

Emelianenko, along with his promoters and management team at M-1 Global, had negotiated with the UFC last week, but could not come to an agreement over co-promotion.

"Fedor is a f---ing joke," UFC President Dana White responded Monday after learning that Emelianenko had signed with Strikeforce. "He turns down a huge deal and the opportunity to face the best in the world to fight nobodies for no money!"

White also addressed fans: "I feel sorry for the real fight fans. I wanted to make the deal, but it takes two and it is very obvious Fedor doesn't want to fight the best, and doesn't give a sh-t about the fans!"

This article was updated at 3:52 p.m. EST and 7:35 p.m. EST with quotes from Dana White that the UFC's PR Director Jennifer Wenk sent directly to Sherdog.com.

Here's a news release from Mike Afromowitz, Strikeforce's public relations:
World's No. 1 MMA Heavyweight To Fight In STRIKEFORCE / M-1 Global Co-Promoted Events

First Fight To Air This Fall, Live on SHOWTIME®

NEW YORK (August 3, 2009)--After a week of intense negotiations and speculation, the hottest topic of discussion in the professional fight world has come to a head as the world's number one heavyweight and most sought after mixed martial arts (MMA) champion Fedor "The Last Emperor" Emelianenko has signed a historic, multi-fight agreement that will see him headline mega-events co-promoted by world championship promotions STRIKEFORCE and M-1 Global.

Emelianenko, known globally as Fedor, will make his premium television debut this Fall when his first fight under the new agreement airs live on SHOWTIME®. Up until now, Emelianenko's live fights have aired exclusively on pay-per-view in the United States.

Ultimate Fighting's Cold War Gets Hotter
By Sean Gregory and James Osborne
Imagine a pro quarterback with Peyton Manning's talent playing up in the Canadian Football League instead of the NFL. Or picture Tiger Woods shunning the PGA and all the major championships to star in the second-string Nationwide Tour. It may sound ridiculous, but the fast-growing, wildly popular sport of mixed martial arts (MMA) is grappling with such an unthinkable, uncomfortable scenario.

Just as the sport's premier league, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, prepares to stage its milestone UFC 100 event in Las Vegas this Saturday -- which is expected to attract more than 1 million pay-per-view purchases -- the top fighter in the world has no plans to participate. Instead of slugging it out in Sin City, Fedor Emelianenko, 32, will be training in a small Russian mining town 385 miles south of Moscow, preparing for an Aug. 1 pay-per-view fight in Anaheim, Calif., against former UFC champion Josh Barnett. That fight is being co-promoted by M-1 Global, an Amsterdam-based organization in which Fedor has an ownership stake, and Affliction Entertainment, an upstart UFC challenger whose financial backers include Donald Trump and Mark Cuban (Cuban's cable network, HDNet, televises Affliction fights). Why isn't Fedor fighting for the more established brand? "The UFC wants his mind, his soul, his body," says Joost Raimond, chief operating officer for M-1 Global.

from sherdog.com:
A week of misfortune turned to disaster for Affliction Entertainment on Friday, as the promotion canceled Affliction "Trilogy," which had been scheduled for Aug. 1 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.

"Finding an opponent for the number one-ranked MMA heavyweight champion in such a short period of time was a huge endeavor, and I'm thrilled at the amount of fighters willing to take on this challenge," Affliction Entertainment Vice President Tom Atencio said in a news release. "But in the end, we just didn't have enough time to promote a new fight to our standards."

SI.com reported the news first Friday morning, and Sherdog.com confirmed shortly after. The cancellation -- which could spell the end of Affliction's year-long run as a mixed martial arts promotion -- comes on the heels of heavyweight Josh Barnett's failed drug test, which forced him out of the "Trilogy" main event against Fedor Emelianenko on Wednesday. Barnett, 32, tested positive for a banned anabolic steroid and was denied licensure by the California State Athletic Commission.

Promoters scrambled to find a replacement opponent for Emelianenko and reportedly considered middleweight Vitor Belfort, light heavyweight prospect Muhammed Lawal and heavyweights Brett Rogers, Paul Buentello, Jeff Monson and Bobby Lashley.

Atencio declined to comment further when reached by Sherdog.com.

Ted's Take: So, if this is Affliction's death knell as an MMA promotion, what does it mean for Fedor? Will he finally jump to the UFC? I say no. With Dana White and the Fertitta brothers on one side, and as White has called them, "Those crazy Russians" on the other side, I don't think they'll ever be able to compromise enough to ink a deal. Fedor could fight for Strikeforce, or other M-1 events in Russia, and definitely in Japan, but we'll most likely never see him inside the Octagon.

Japanese combat fighting superstar Takanori "The Fireball Kid" Gomi has been added to the Affliction M-1 Global's locked-and-loaded "Trilogy" card against upset-minded Rafaello "Tractor" Oliveira, completing the five-fight Pay-Per-View event, live August 1 from Honda Center in Anaheim.

The premier heavyweight mixed martial arts fighter in the universe, Russian icon Fedor "The Last Emperor" Emelianenko (30-1-0), defends his WAMMA heavyweight title against No. 1 contender, Josh "The Babyfaced Assassin" Barnett (24-5-0), in the special main event.

Gilbert Yvel, who was tooled on by Josh Barnett at Affliction: Day of Reckoning, gets the KO on Pedro Rizzo and the right to fight Paul Buentello at Affliction: Trilogy on Aug. 1.

from M-1global's Web site:
The M-1 film crew was in tow when Fedor Emelianenko made his way to New York for the press conference held earlier this week at the Trump Towers to kick off formal promotion for M-1 and Affliction's "Trilogy" event on Aug. 1 in Anaheim, Calif. at the Honda Center.

Hosted by M-1 Global USA Vice President Jerry Millen, the blog gives fight fans an all-access look at the start of Fedor's press tour. Watch as Fedor's oldest fan makes an encore appearance and shares her thoughts on Fedor's upcoming fight vs. Josh Barnett; Millen interviews Barnett and asks him what it will be like to fight a close friend; Renato Sobral's thoughts on sparring Barnett every day and what his feelings are about fighting M-1 Global fighter Gegard Mousasi at "Trilogy," and more.