gandhalf
06-22-2006, 12:58 PM
June 22, 2006
No Holds (or Kicks, or Punches) Barred
By LEE JENKINS (not the entire article btw, for legal reasons , but here are the interesting parts)
His name is Fedor Emelianenko, and in the sport of mixed martial arts, he is Mike Tyson, circa 1988. He draws more than 60,000 fans for his fights, makes more than $1 million a bout and rarely needs more than a couple of minutes to complete his work. He enters the ring looking out of shape and half-asleep. Then he begins stomping the head of the next challenger
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as Emelianenko strode into the Howard Johnson, flanked by a United Nations interpreter and five ring girls clad in red satin, no one at the front desk recognized him. Mixed martial arts is still in the formative stages, a sport chronicled mainly on the Internet and fueled at the grass-roots level. Only when Emelianenko reached the ballroom, where he was to conduct a fighting seminar in his native Russian, did young men whisper and squeal.
"I never thought I could achieve so much this way," Emelianenko said through an interpreter. "But it was always my dream. It was my golden dream."
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Mixed martial arts includes two major leagues: the Ultimate Fighting Championship, which is famous in the United States for its pay-per- view showdowns, its octagonal ring and its highly rated reality television show; and Pride Fighting Championships, which is most popular in Asia, regularly fills the Tokyo Dome in Japan and has enough money to keep Emelianenko on its roster.
Extreme sports need marketable stars, and at this point, mixed martial arts has no better candidate than Emelianenko. He has three nicknames -- the Last Emperor, the Terminator and the Cyborg -- and only one loss, the result of a cut that did not close.
At 29, Emelianenko is Pride's heavyweight champion and the model for the next generation. While most older fighters tend to rely on skills they have already mastered, Emelianenko blends all the disciplines together, a 6-foot, 233-pound, modern-day Bruce Lee.
The United States could soon get a live glimpse of Emelianenko in action. Pride is planning to hold its first fight outside Japan in October -- coincidence or not, it is scheduled to be in Las Vegas, the home of Ultimate Fighting Championship. If Emelianenko's injured hand is fully healed, he may be able to participate.
But there are dozens of smaller leagues, like Mixed Fighting Championship, International Fight League, Gladiator Challenge, TKO, K-1, M-1, King of the Cage and Cage Rage, that help less-acclaimed extreme fighters stay in the ring. Some make as little as $500 a bout, pay their own expenses and share hotel rooms with whichever friends have agreed to train and manage them.
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$500? Holy shit!....That's even more pathetic than what the ufc is paying their fighters!
No Holds (or Kicks, or Punches) Barred
By LEE JENKINS (not the entire article btw, for legal reasons , but here are the interesting parts)
His name is Fedor Emelianenko, and in the sport of mixed martial arts, he is Mike Tyson, circa 1988. He draws more than 60,000 fans for his fights, makes more than $1 million a bout and rarely needs more than a couple of minutes to complete his work. He enters the ring looking out of shape and half-asleep. Then he begins stomping the head of the next challenger
--------------------------------
as Emelianenko strode into the Howard Johnson, flanked by a United Nations interpreter and five ring girls clad in red satin, no one at the front desk recognized him. Mixed martial arts is still in the formative stages, a sport chronicled mainly on the Internet and fueled at the grass-roots level. Only when Emelianenko reached the ballroom, where he was to conduct a fighting seminar in his native Russian, did young men whisper and squeal.
"I never thought I could achieve so much this way," Emelianenko said through an interpreter. "But it was always my dream. It was my golden dream."
______________________________________
Mixed martial arts includes two major leagues: the Ultimate Fighting Championship, which is famous in the United States for its pay-per- view showdowns, its octagonal ring and its highly rated reality television show; and Pride Fighting Championships, which is most popular in Asia, regularly fills the Tokyo Dome in Japan and has enough money to keep Emelianenko on its roster.
Extreme sports need marketable stars, and at this point, mixed martial arts has no better candidate than Emelianenko. He has three nicknames -- the Last Emperor, the Terminator and the Cyborg -- and only one loss, the result of a cut that did not close.
At 29, Emelianenko is Pride's heavyweight champion and the model for the next generation. While most older fighters tend to rely on skills they have already mastered, Emelianenko blends all the disciplines together, a 6-foot, 233-pound, modern-day Bruce Lee.
The United States could soon get a live glimpse of Emelianenko in action. Pride is planning to hold its first fight outside Japan in October -- coincidence or not, it is scheduled to be in Las Vegas, the home of Ultimate Fighting Championship. If Emelianenko's injured hand is fully healed, he may be able to participate.
But there are dozens of smaller leagues, like Mixed Fighting Championship, International Fight League, Gladiator Challenge, TKO, K-1, M-1, King of the Cage and Cage Rage, that help less-acclaimed extreme fighters stay in the ring. Some make as little as $500 a bout, pay their own expenses and share hotel rooms with whichever friends have agreed to train and manage them.
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$500? Holy shit!....That's even more pathetic than what the ufc is paying their fighters!