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[QOTSA420]

A Thursday just isn't a Thursday without a little bit of Fedor news that will make you throw your coffee table across the room in pure elation. MMA Ironman somehow got their hands on tomorrow's issue of Nikkan Sports which features a report about Fedor potentially facing Yoshida in his retirement fight April 25th in ASTRA. Since most of you guys probably don't speak Japanese, largely in part because there's something called 'English' that keeps getting in the way, here is my rather accurate translation of the newspaper's feature story. Now excuse me while I pat myself on the back.

An article in tomorrow's Nikkan Sports newspaper says that Yoshida's retirement fight in ASTRA will most likely be against Fedor. The exact quote is "Retirement match against Fedor, world's strongest man". According to the newspaper, Fedor's camp got in contact with Yoshida when he announced his retirement fight somewhere around February 8th and both parties have been negotiating ever since. There is a final meeting that will be held in Japan at Dream 13 which should finalize the negotiations. If nothing pans out after Dream 13, then they apparently have other fighters readily available to fight Yoshida.

If Fedor Emelianenko takes a fight against a retiring Hidehiko Yoshida he will infuriate American fans. Many have hoped to see Fedor, the USAT/SBN Consensus MMA Rankings #1 heavyweight in the world, fight #10 Fabricio Werdum on Strikeforce's CBS show. The risk-reward calculation Fedor's management would be making IF they indeed signed this fight is that there is virtually no chance that Fedor loses to Yoshida and it's an easy pay day while we haggle with CBS for more money.

Japanese fans might find Fedor vs Yoshida to be a compelling spectacle as they see the fading legend Yoshida, a gold medal olympian in Judo in 1992 and one of Japanese MMA's biggest and most respected stars take on the man universally known as the best in the world in Fedor. But American fans are largely ignorant of the historical and cultural significance of Yoshida in MMA and Japan so we'll just see Fedor ducking top competition.

A Fedor-Yoshida fight is a waste of the time of the world's greatest heavyweight and if he breaks his hands pummeling Yoshida and out for several months after this fight we will possibly not see Fedor take on quality competition in 2010.

The sad thing is, this is exactly the sort of move one expects from Fedor's management. It's very interesting that the DREAM/Strikeforce alliance apparently prevented Fedor vs Josh Barnett at DREAM.13 but that created an opening for the new ASTRA promotion to put together this fight.

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[Fedorlei Gomipierre]

As much as I'm a fan of Yoshida, I take issue with any possibility of him fighting Fedor at this moment in time. 2004 is a different story, but he looked outright deflated in the Ishii fight and I really don't think they'd waste Fedor's time....unless there was one helluva payday involved.

[lwbrewer]

I am glad some of you go out and find a lot of great articles but this writer calls it a translation when he has his thoughts injected all threw it. If it's going to be a translation put your thoughts at the end. So if your looking for a pat on the back from me it might be a little harder than you would like.

[Fedorlei Gomipierre]

I read the article on bloodyelbow and it's got like two or three quotes wrapped within each other, it just didn't transfer when he posted it here I think. The article on the site's a little different.

[Lint the Destroyer]

I don't wanna see Yoshida go out like that.

[The Sensational One]

I would be so so dissapointed if this were to happen. But i don't expect nothing less, and really anything outside of M-1 putting Fedor in bum fights volume whatever is not shocking. Im not hating on Yoshida, but really? He is not relevant currently and would like to see his retirment fight, fight against someone he may actually be able to defeat. Fedor vs Werdum should be his next fight.

[mattc25]

....if this fight goes down,it will be complete bullshit imo.

[santeesiouxwarrior]

pretty sure fedor is gonna walk through this fight injurie free for a lot of cheese for his management,then take barnett out a month or two later in dream.(which they should crown there 1st heavyweight champion with)Then head-line a cbs card against werdum,or hopefully the winner of overeem/rogers show down.

[Badluck33]

This further echoes the fact that Fedor's management are really "crazy russians"

Fedor being part of this particular management team has the potential to really hurt his image.

[KevoOnTheRadio]

I'm not buying it. I'll believe it when it's officially announced. But yea, if this does go down, it's bullshit. But I guess tahts what you deal with when you have non-exclusive contracts.

On the other side, why the hell would Yoshida want this fight?! "Hey it's my last day of work before retirement, lets have a big party, and everybody can watch me get destroyed by a Russian grizzley bear!" I respect the hell outta the man for what he's done, but damn!