Fedor's opponent is..
Former PRIDE heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko (26-1) will battle Hong Man Choi (1-0) after all.
Promoters of the New Year’s Eve event, dubbed Yarennoka!, made the official announcement earlier today.
The Dec. 31 event takes place at the Saitama Super Arena, a 22,000-capacity multi-purpose venue in near Tokyo in Saitama, Japan. The show, broadcast by SKY Perfect in Japan, will be aired on HDNet in the U.S. beginning at 6 a.m. ET. The event’s entire fight card will be broadcast, according to HDNet executives.
The Emelianenko vs. Choi bout has long been rumored — ever since Emelianenko first teased Japanese fans with the possibility of his presence at the event last month.
Emelianenko, once considered the sport’s undisputed top pound-for-pound fighter, has been heavily criticized for facing just three fairly over-matched opponents over the past two years, so this latest booking probably won’t help matters. However, Emelianenko does own an 26-1 record, his reign as PRIDE champion lasted from March 2003 to the organization’s eventual demise this year, and he’s beaten an all-star lineup of MMA talent, including Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Mirko “Cro” Filipovic, Ricardo Arona and others.
He’ll now take on 7-foot-2, 350-pounder Choi, a 27-year-old South Korean who suffers from a rare disease that causes him to continue growing throughout his life. Although he has just one MMA fight to his credit, he’s an accomplished K-1 boxer (who owns a career 12-3 record) and wrestler. He made his MMA debut last New Year’s Eve in a K-1 event and defeated two-fight veteran Bobby Ologun — a 215-pounder — with a TKO via punches just 16 seconds into the fight.
Yarennoka! is being organized by former staffers of PRIDE with support from K-1, DEEP, and M-1 Global, an organization that was recently purchased from Emelianenko’s manager and restructured by a group of American investors. Emelianenko, then the world’s top free agent, signed a long-term deal with the organization in October.
The latest line-up for the event includes:
Fedor Emelianenko vs. Hong Man Choi
Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Kazuo Misaki
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Luis Azeredo
Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. Gilbert Melendez
Ricardo Arona vs. TBA
Hidehiko Hasegawa vs. Hayato “Mach” Sakurai
Shinya Aoki vs. Gesias “JZ” Calvancante
Luiz Azeredo vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri
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