Dismissing reports that he suffered a broken nose and a serious hand injury in beating Brett Rogers on Saturday, Fedor Emelianenko said in an interview this week that neither injury was serious and he'll be back soon.Speaking to Loretta Hunt of Sherdog.com, Fedor said he didn't break his nose and that his hand injury is much less serious than has been reported, and that he won't be out four to six months as was feared. Video below.
"No, I didn't break my nose -- rather, Brett Rogers didn't break my nose," Fedor said. "It was just a blow that actually opened up an existing cut that I had for a while. When I was training for the Josh Barnett fight, my brother Aleksander came to Russia to train and spar with me, and he ... made a cut on the bridge of my nose. It was there for a while and then in the fight Brett connected and it re-opened. ... The nose is fine."
Fedor said he dislocated his left thumb when punching Rogers in the first round, but that it will only be in a cast for four to six weeks and that it's not a significant injury.
"I'll get back into training, actually, fairly quickly," he said. "I can run and I can work with my right hand, I just can't do any striking with my left hand."
Hunt asked Fedor about UFC President Dana White's claims that the elite heavyweights in the UFC would easily beat Rogers, but Fedor shrugged it off.
"What can I tell you?" Fedor said. "The first thing I saw was that Brett Rogers had his way very quickly -- in 20 seconds -- with a UFC champion, Andrei Arlovski. In terms of Rogers, I can't comment on how other fighters in the UFC would fare with Brett Rogers because that's just speculation. As far as the UFC, if they offer us a fair deal, then we would be open to fighting in the UFC."
M-1 Global CEO Joost Raimond said Fedor will be back with Strikeforce "100 percent, for sure," for "a minimum of two" co-promotions with M-1 Global.
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