The former PRIDE heavyweight champion and top-ranked fighter will headline M-1 Global’s first-ever show, which will be held Dec. 31 (New Year’s Eve) in Japan.
That’s the word from the Mix-Fight Championship’s Russian website, anyway. (Which is different from the M-1 Global website.) An email from one of the company’s executives was also sent to MMAjunkie.com (
http://www.mmajunkie.com) today.
According to the website, the event will take place at the Saitama Super Arena, a 22,000-capacity multi-purpose venue in Saitama City, Saitama, Japan.
No other information about the event was announced, but according to the Mix-Fight Championship’s website, further details will be released soon.
Back in October, a restructured M-1 Global organization announced that it had landed Emelianenko and signed the former PRIDE title-holder to a long-term deal. At the initial press conference, M-1 Global executives said that the organization would likely hold its first event in February.
However, earlier this month, a letter written by Emelianenko (and translated to English) appeared on the Mix-Fight Championship’s Russian website. In it, Emelianenko hinted at the possibility of fighting at a New Year’s event in Japan, which had become somewhat of an annual occurrence for the fighter.
M-1 Global CEO Monte Cox, though, came out a few days later and said the quick turnaround time wasn’t realistic and that February remained the most likely date for their debut event.
Apparently, though, he underestimated his own organization’s ability to organize a major show.
Emelianenko, who owns a near-perfect 26-1 record, has posted victories over many of sport’s top fighters, including Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, Mark Coleman, Mark Hunt and Matt Lindland. He held PRIDE’s heavyweight title from March 2003 until the organization’s eventual demise a few months ago.
Earlier this month, Jeff Monson stated that he might be Emelianenko’s first opponent in M-1 Global. However, former UFC heavyweight Pedro Rizzo has recently said the same thing.
