Sakakibara undecided on Fedor’s opponent: ‘Please wait a little more’

With little more than a month to go before his return to MMA takes place on December 31st at the Saitama Super Arena, Fedor…

By: Karim Zidan | 8 years ago
Sakakibara undecided on Fedor’s opponent: ‘Please wait a little more’
Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

With little more than a month to go before his return to MMA takes place on December 31st at the Saitama Super Arena, Fedor Emelianenko is still without an official opponent.

While names like Jaideep Singh and Tsuyoshi Kosaka had been thrown around over the past few months, it appears that neither of those fighters will get the first crack at the returning Russian heavyweight legend.

According to Sakakibara, fans need to be a little more patient.

“So far, we have not decided on the final decision,” Sakakibara told Tass.ru. “There are a number of candidates before us, but we want to choose the most worthy. Now the whole world is watching the news hoping to learn at last the name of Fedor’s opponent.

“Please wait a little more.”

The Dec. 29 show will consist of the five fights in the first round of the tournament. They will include the reserve fight, Kazushi Sakuraba vs Shinya Aoki, Yuki Motoya vs Nam Jin Jo, AJ Matthews vs Anatoly Tokov, and Tsuyoshi Kosaka vs James Thompson. The Dec. 31 show will consist of the semi-finals and finals of the tournament, Fedor Emelianenko long awaited return, Kaido Hooverson, Gabi Garcia vs Lei’D Tapa, RENA vs Jleana Valentino.

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About the author
Karim Zidan
Karim Zidan

Karim Zidan is a investigative reporter and feature writer focusing on the intersection of sports and politics. He has written for BloodyElbow since 2014 and has served as an associate editor since 2016. He also writes for The New York Times and The Guardian. Karim has been invited to speak about his work at numerous universities, including Princeton, and was a panelist at the South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival and the Oslo Freedom Forum. He also participated in the United Nations counter-terrorism conference in 2021. His reporting on Ramzan Kadyrov’s involvement in MMA, much of which was done for Bloody Elbow, has led to numerous award nominations, and was the basis of an award-winning HBO Real Sports documentary.

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