“Fedor vs Ishii” announced for December 31, 2011 in Japan

December 31st, 2011 from Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan with broadcast
in North America on HDNet.

Saint Petersburg, Russia (December 12, 2011) – M-1Global and DREAM officials announced today that legendary heavyweight Fedor “ The Last Emperor” Emelianenko will be facing Olympic Gold Medalist in Judo Satoshi Ishii on December 31, 2011 as part of FIELDS presents FIGHT FOR JAPAN “Genkidesuka!! Oomisoka!! 2011! The event, which takes place from the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, will be broadcast in North America on HDNet.

The event marks the return of Fedor Emelianenko to Japan after a 3-year absence.

“M-1 Global in cooperation with Dream is very pleased to announce the bout which will bring the world’s attention to Japan on December 31” - said M-1 Global Director of Operations Evgeni Kogan, “Fedor has been in great shape, and is ready for what we think will be a hard and competitive fight.”

Emelianenko ( 32-4-1 NC ) enters the bout on the heels of a commanding victory over Jeff Monson on November 20th in Moscow at the sold out M-1 Global presents: Fedor vs. Monson. The contest with Ishii will mark the sixth time “The Last Emperor” has entered the ring as part of mixed martial arts year-end festivities in Japan.

Satoshi Ishii enters the contest with the hope of continuing his winning ways on New Year’s Eve. Ishii defeated Jerome Le Banner by decision to end 2010, and has lost only once as a professional. The Olympic gold medalist made his MMA debut in 2009 and has since won 4 bouts with only one loss and one draw on his record.

The official lineup:

FIELDS presents FIGHT FOR JAPAN “Genkidesuka!! Oomisoka!! 2011!

1 Fedor Emelianenko vs. Satoshi Ishii – DREAM Heavyweight match (DREAM MMA rules)

2 Shinya Aoki vs. Satoru Kitaoka – DREAM Lightweight title match (DREAM MMA rules)

3 Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Takeshi “Lion” Inoue – DREAM Featherweight title match (DREAM MMA rules)

4 Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kazuyuki Miyata – DREAM Featherweight one match (DREAM MMA rules)

5 Yuichiro “Jien-Otsu” Nagashima vs. Katsunori Kikuno – Mix rule one match (1R – 3min kickboxing rules, 2R – 5min MMA rules)

6 DREAM Bantamweight Tournament final (Winner of semi-final 1 vs. semi-final 2)

7 Bibiano Fernandes vs. Rodolfo Marques Diniz – DREAM Bantamweight Tournament semi-final 1 (DREAM MMA rules)

8 Masakazu Imanari vs. Antonio Banuelos – DREAM Bantamweight Tournament semi-final 2 (DREAM MMA rules)

9 Hideo Tokoro vs. Yusup Saadulaev – DREAM Bantamweight Tournament reserve match (DREAM MMA rules)

10 Hayato “Mach” Sakurai vs. Ryo Chonan – DREAM Welterweight one match (DREAM MMA rules)

11 Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Peter Aerts – IGF one match (IGF rules)
For information on M-1 Global, go to the official M-1 website, www.M-1Global.com and M- 1 Global Facebook fan page.

About M-1 Global:

Founded in 1998, M-1 Global (www.M-1Global.com) has established itself in the realm of mixed martial arts (MMA) as the premiere entity for discovering and developing the world’s next-generation of superstar fighters. With offices in St. Petersburg, Amsterdam, New York City, Washington DC, Los Angeles and affiliates in Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Tokyo and Paris, the M-1 brand has staged over 70 events worldwide including the M-1 Selection and M-1 Challenge events and its co-produced Strikeforce events in the United States. Captivating the live, television and broadband audiences with its superior production values and match-ups, M-1 events boast some of the sport’s top names including Fedor Emelianenko, Andrei Arlovski, AleksanderEmelianenko, Gegard Mousasi, Alistair Overeem, Ben Rothwell, Melvin Manhoef, Roman Zentsov, Stephan Struve and rising stars Shamil Zavurov, Guram Gugenishvili, Alexander Sarnavskiy and Vinny Magalhaes. 2011 marks a breakthrough year with two Selections tournaments across Eastern & Western Europe, North America and Asia and a full calendar of Challenge events fuelled by a talent-rich contention system ranking M-1 Global’s Champions amongst the greatest in the sport.

M-1 Global’s greatest asset is the number one heavyweight fighter in mixed martial arts history, Fedor Emelianenko. With daily coverage on all MMA-related websites in the world, and articles in Time Magazine, LA times and New York times, Fedor and M-1 Global make a lifetime match serving as the catalyst to grow MMA in the 21st century.

MEDIA CONTACT

M-1 GLOBAL / Media Credentials Igor Golubchik (847) 612-2000, IgorGolubchik@gmail.com

http://www.m-1global.com/2011/12/12/fedor-vs-ishii-announced-for-december-31-2011-in-japan/

Very glad to see Fedor fighting, I was hoping for Kharitonov on the card as well. And Sylvia vs Rogers.

I'm so fucking happy.

I get to see Fedor fight live.

Just saying, that was one of the reasons I rushed to buy a ticket, because it seemed he'd be fighting. And I also always hoped for the chance to see him fight here, though I was never sure if he'd be able to fight in Japan again or not. I'm really glad that the fight is now confirmed.

I hope this marks a start of a mutually beneficial friendship between the two orgs.

Real Entertainment has easily the best production value know-how in mma,
which M-1 (or anyone interested in class) could use and I'm prety sure M-1 is better off financially.

All guns blazin for DREAM. Quality card from top to bottom and with Fedor I think JMMA can rise again.

nodogoshi wrote:I'm so fucking happy.

I get to see Fedor fight live.

That´s awesome man. I´m jealous.

rezin wrote:I hope this marks a start of a mutually beneficial friendship between the two orgs.

Real Entertainment has easily the best production value know-how in mma,
which M-1 (or anyone interested in class) could use and I'm prety sure M-1 is better off financially.

They aren't working with FEG anymore.

For this card, the partnership is with Antonio Inoke's company (sorry I can't remember the title at the moment).

They even referenced the nonpayment of fighters purses as one of the reasons for it in the press conference, which I translated on the TT site (if you can find it, would it were that you are interested).

Shit, I just realized you said Real Entertainment, I'd delete my post now but I think there's some relavent stuff that is worth posting.

nodogoshi wrote:I'm so fucking happy.

I get to see Fedor fight live.

Man i'm really jealous of you now.

I'm sure the new Fedor will give us a good show and i hope he wins, and against Ishii i think he will (not saying Ishii is crap, but Fedor is far more complete and experienced)

War !!!

BTW, any news on Kharitonov fighting too?

Guess I need a clarification, is Real involved in this in any way?

Ishii doesn't really have anything much to offer.

Fedor should win easily.

But, no opponent is ever to be taken lightly, and especially when you have an older fighter against a younger fighter, the younger guy always shows up hungry.

I see it going somewhat like the Monson fight, with Fedor likely trying to play to his strengths, with his superiority obviously in the stand up. But you never know, Ishii could buzz him like Fujita for instance, or whatever else might happen, who fucking knows.

But, I don't think Ishii is the toughest potential opponent out there, and I certainly expect Fedor to win. If he doesn't? Talk to me after the fight about that.

rezin wrote:Guess I need a clarification, is Real involved in this in any way?

I don't know what Real is, actually.

When I read your comment at first, I immediately thought FEG.

Then I re-read it, and realized you had said something else.

Real Entertainment is the co-producer to Dream. Real contracts fighters for Dream as does FEG, only they pay them.
I'm pretty sure they are ex-Pride and responsible for Dream's production values.

I suppose there's not many "name" opponents for Fedor left out there besides Sergei and Barnett,
if they they decide to leave, and neither one is an option currently. Sad state of a sport.

Finally they book him, the Fedor teasers. The card is off the charts officially. Now if only they squeezed Sergei in there somehow.

What a card.

If they add Sergei and Aleks to this card I would say PRIDE is back.

Sergei isn't fighting on any cards outside of UFC/Strikeforce until he is OFFICIALLY released.

Fedor is fighting the 4th time this year, thank GOD he is staying active again rather than fighting once or maybe even twice per year.

Great card

Can't wait


WAAAAAAAAAOHHHHHHHH

great news, too bad sergei isnt there as well. Great fights all around.

The last time Fedor fought an Olympic judo medalist was Ogawa back in 2004, whom Fedor submitted. Ogawa won the silver medal and was a multi-times world champion, albeit about ten years before the Fedor fight.

Since then Fedor fighting style has changed, he is a more of a striker now. I think Ishii is a more dangerous fight than Ogawa back in the day, since Ishii made it a point to pursue MMA full time and even trained at Blackhouse. Fedor takes it by striking and range control, but he still has to be careful.

The Last Emperor back in the Japan? i think every thing's gonna be alright guys i can't fucking wait for this event!

^I was pleased to see Fedor using his great reflexes and grappling ability in the Monson fight to always manage to get on top if it went to the ground. I hope to see that again.

Ogawa was a fucking judo savant.

He reportedly only started doing judo in highschool.

And he was then a world champion at the age of 19, and was the youngest guy to accomplish the feat, and in Japan and other countries as well, most judoka are started early (not unlike in other sports).

I also use that fight was a reference, I think Fedor will be pretty well superior in almost all areas, and often times judo guys are sort of fish out of water in striking, but simply one never does quite know for sure. Ishii's youth, and hunger(?) are things which could come up, potentially.

Yeah, traditionally judokas have very mixed results in MMA for some reason. It seems like a perfect base, but somehow not very viable.

Nodo, do you think Ogawa is better judo than Ishii? I can't really compare the two, I just know that Fedor vs. Ogawa was the young nightmarish Enae Volare Mezzo Fedor and now Fedor has a couple more miles on him. Plus Ishii is young and has spent a lot of time training pure MMA at top world gyms, unlike Ogawa.

brace wrote:Yeah, traditionally judokas have very mixed results in MMA for some reason. It seems like a perfect base, but somehow not very viable.

Nodo, do you think Ogawa is better judo than Ishii? I can't really compare the two, I just know that Fedor vs. Ogawa was the young nightmarish Enae Volare Mezzo Fedor and now Fedor has a couple more miles on him. Plus Ishii is young and has spent a lot of time training pure MMA at top world gyms, unlike Ogawa.

I think that judo guys are really strong in the areas such as core strength, and also balance, and somewhat in coordination, and other related skills/talents.

There is simply a big gap between judo and MMA, indeed bigger than in the cases of many other combat sports. For one thing, judo requires the use of a judogi, and merely shedding the judogi (or more relavently having your opponent not wearing one) is a huge change.

The question as to who is the better judoka is slightly a difficult one, as Ishii is obviously a very good judoka, and was lauded as such as well. But, Ogawa obviously accomplished more. But as you say, Ishii is still pretty young, and could have surely accomplished a lot more if he would have stuck with judo, and there's even a possibility he may have surpassed Ogawa's achievements. One just never knows. I guess I prefer to just consider them both really good judoka, and to just regard them that way, as 2 individuals, kind of like I don't prefer to compare say Bernard Hopkins and Marvin Hagler, for example.

But, Ishii could still be something special, I just don't know if he really has the motivation to put himself on the line. He must have picked up some skills in the course of his MMA training. I just really have not been convinced as to whether he really possesses the motivation to go full throttle (which is okay, it is a tough sport, just trying to give my opinion).