Today's MMA Twitter mailbag starts with a question about the next fight for Fedor Emelianenko and then moves along to address the UFC's plans to expand into Mexico.Your questions and my answers for our UFC Twitter mailbag are below.
daniloteodoro: Do you know when the next Fedor fight will take place?
No. No one does. Fedor doesn't know, M-1 Global doesn't know and MMA fans certainly don't know.
I think the best-case scenario, if you're an MMA fan who wants to see Fedor fight a good opponent soon, is that Strikeforce and M-1 work out some kind of deal that puts Fedor into the Strikeforce cage in the fall against one of that promotion's top heavyweights: Brett Rogers, Alistair Overeem or Fabricio Werdum.
A more likely scenario, I'm sorry to say, is that things drag out with Fedor, no American promotion is willing to make the deal M-1 wants, and the next time we see Fedor turns out to be in Japan on New Year's Eve. Fedor fought in Japan every New Year's Eve from 2003 to 2007, and he has always enjoyed that atmosphere. Unfortunately, only one of his New Year's Eve fights -- against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in 2004 -- was against an elite opponent. If he fights again on New Year's Eve 2009, I don't expect him to take on anyone in the top 10, and probably not even anyone in the top 20.
And, of course, it's still entirely possible that he won't fight until some time in 2010. We simply don't know. When I interviewed Fedor earlier this year, he told me he expected to fight three or four times in 2009. Now I'm just hoping his knockout of Andrei Arlovski wasn't his only fight of the year.
tangomega: Fedor signing with EA was to me a clear indication he wasn't coming to the UFC. He's arrogant, afraid, or both.
I don't know if Fedor is arrogant or afraid, but I do agree with you that Fedor's signing with EA -- which is making an MMA video game to compete with UFC Undisputed -- is one of many signs that Fedor isn't coming to the UFC. Fedor and the people around him view the UFC as competitors, not partners.
MMA_Narcisist: Wow, Roger Huerta, Cain Velasquez, Diego Sanchez and more could be stars with a live card (in Mexico)
This tweet came in response to my tweet about Dana White saying UFC 100 was a huge success in Mexco. I absolutely agree with you, MMA Narcisist, that the UFC has a number of Mexican-American fighters who could be very big draws with a live show in Mexico, and I think that live show will happen within the next year or two. I'd also love to see fighters like Miguel Torres and Leonard Garcia on a WEC card in Mexico. I think MMA is ready to blow up south of the border.
Want to be part of our next UFC Twitter mailbag? Post a question or comment on Twitter.com, and be sure to start it with @MichaelDavSmith.
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