Fedor Emelianenko vs. Dan Henderson possible for Strikeforce this year
Immediately following Dan Henderson‘s destruction of Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante this past Saturday, talks of a possible superfight between the newly crowned Light Heavyweight Champion and Fedor Emelianenko began to spread throughout the MMA community. However, according to sources close to the Russian (via FightersOnly.com), the match-up had already been proposed by Strikeforce prior to last weekend’s title bout and it is an idea that Emelianenko is seriously considering.
In his latest effort, Fedor was defeated via TKO (doctor stoppage) by Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva. The loss, which eliminated him from the promotion’s Heavyweight Grand Prix, marks his second in a row. He suffered the first legitimate defeat of his professional career when he was submitted by Fabricio Werdum several months prior.
Although Emelianenko’s success competing at Heavyweight has long made him resistant to the idea of dropping to 205-pounds, the recent losses lend credence to the idea that he may be better suited as a Light Heavyweight. Against Silva, Fedor found himself at a definite size disadvantage, which allowed the Brazilian to easily out-muscle and control him en-route to the doctor stoppage.
In the time since, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker has expressed interest in booking Emelianenko against the loser of the upcoming quarterfinal bout between Alistair Overeem and Werdum, however with that fight having been pushed back recently, this would leave one of the promotion’s biggest draws shelved indefinitely.
Steven Marrocco of MMAJunkie.com confirmed the reports via Twitter:
Update:
Not so fast. Our good friends at USA Today MMA contacted M-1 Global Spokesman Eric Nicholl, who denied the rumors:
