Fedor

Although the recent addition of PRIDE Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko, along with advertisements donning PRIDE’s insignia might point to otherwise, October 9th’s Bushido Europe "Rotterdam Rumble" event is not under the direction of Japanese mega-promotion Dream Stage Entertainment in any way, Vice-President Yukino Kanda clarified today.

Emelianenko, who recently added the 2005 PRIDE Heavyweight Grand Prix title to his list of hefty accomplishments by defeating killer kickboxer Mirko "Cro Cop" Filopovic one month ago, will be facing Bob Schrijber in the Holland show that has adopted a similar name to PRIDE’s successful spin-off event.

Although Kanda voiced PRIDE’s concern in having their champion run the risk of injury outside their own promotion’s plans, she said it was fully in his contractual rights to do so at this time. Explains Kanda, one of the "exceptions" PRIDE allows its fighters under contract is the option to fight in their own promotions.

"Fedor is fighting, but the promoter of that show is the manager of Fedor," Kanda explained. "It has nothing to do with us as a promoter. We are not involved [in] any way financially."

As for PRIDE logos appearing on initial posters for the event (which the Japanese promotion did not give permission for), Kanda says they contacted Bushido Europe to have them removed, although some advertisements could not be pulled from publications in time. However, various websites are still displaying the PRIDE logo on distributed posters.

• MMA legend Royce Gracie will indeed fight in the K-1 New Year’s eve show. Although rumors have been indicating that Royce could be negotiating with the UFC, this won’t affect Gracie’s appearance at the most important show of the year for the K-1 organization, where K-1 and Pride compete for TV ratings in their annual "New Year’s eve battle". As of now no opponent was announced to be facing Royce, and it’s not impossible that the three-time UFC Champion may return to the Octagon next year, as his manager and Zuffa seem to be having some talks. FCF will keep you posted.
• After staying in Brazil training for little more than a month in the Chute Boxe headquarters, Pride superstar and Japanese idol Kazushi Sakuraba has returned to Japan. During his stay Sakuraba trained hard in daily basis, in disciplines such as Jiu Jitsu, Boxing, Muay Thai and of course, MMA. During his stay in Curitiba, all the Chute Boxe members were more than pleased to say that Saku was well liked by everybody, very friendly and making jokes most of time. The Japanese fighter said that he intends to come back to Brazil to train again in the future, and now it’ll be interesting to see what kind of new weapons he may display in his next fight in Pride.
• Still on the Chute Boxe subject, one new addition to the team that may happen soon, is Jungle Fight veteran and Muay Thai stylist Helio Dipp! Dipp has arrived a few days ago in Curitiba, and is training in the Chute Boxe academy, with the likes of Mauricio Shogun, Murilo Ninja, Wanderlei Silva and many others. Although Helio’s style is already pretty simmilar to the Chute Boxe style, and him joining the team at this point would seem natural, it’s still not clear or decided if he will stay with Chute Boxe or just train for a little while as part of the new interchange program going on in the world famous academy. Also training in Chute Boxe right now, are Jiu Jitsu players Rodrigo and Carina Damm! Both have been training in Curitiba for close to two weeks, and seem to be looking forward to stay in the team.