Nobuyuki Sakakibara and Wanderlei Silva (right) (photo via Rizin)

By FCF Staff

Having signed Wanderlei Silva to a contract, Rizin FF President Nobuyuki Sakakibara believes an all-star bout between the “Axe Murderer” and Fedor Emelianenko could happen in the coming months.

Recently the Japanese based promotion announced that it has signed Silva to a deal, and the former PRIDE champ is scheduled to compete in a grappling match on April 17th. Silva and a yet to be announced teammate will take on Kazushi Sakuraba and Hideo Tokoro in a tag team, submission bout.

Currently Silva is under suspension from the Nevada Commission until mid 2017, but recently Sakakibara told Bloody Elbow.com that he believes the Brazilian star will compete under MMA rules before the year is out.

Emelianenko, meanwhile, returned to the ring in December and stopped Jaideep Singh at Rizin’s New Year’s Eve event. The legend hasn’t had his next fight confirmed, but he’s expected to compete for Rizin this summer in Russia.

In the aforementioned report, Sakakibara had this to say about the possibility of a Fedor – Silva showdown:

“I do believe that both of them have that fight in mind for sometime down the line,” said Sakakibara. “I feel like they already know. When I negotiated with Wanderlei, he definitely brought up Fedor’s name. But as far as Fedor, I haven’t heard anything from his mouth. He is not the type of fighter to pick his opponent. If all the terms are right, there is no reason for him to turn it down.”

Sakakibara did add, however, that he would only be interested in pursuing the match-up if there’s interest from fans to see it.