Source: MMAFighting.comPHILADELPHIA -- The "Last Emperor" has seen his last fight in Strikeforce.
Fedor Emelianenko will be cut from the promotion following his loss to Dan Henderson at last Saturday's Strikeforce/M-1 Fedor vs. Henderson event.
UFC president Dana White -- a co-owner of Strikeforce parent company Zuffa LLC -- confirmed the news following the UFC 133 press conference on Thursday.
"He's being cut, yeah," White told the media. "Why? Do you think we should keep him?"
The loss was the third straight for Emelianenko after an unbeaten stretch that spanned nearly a decade.
His loss to Henderson came at 4:12 of round one. Prior to that, he had lost to Antonio Silva via TKO and Fabricio Werdum by submission.
"You guys thought he was the pound-for-pound best in the world, but I thought he was overrated for years," White said.
The 34-year-old Emelianenko (31-4, 1 no contest) said after the Henderson fight that he would take some time to consider retirement upon returning home to Russia, but if he chooses to return, he will first have to shop his services around to find a new promoter.
Whoa!
UPDATE:
Apparently Fedor's contract with Showtime is still there, so he's no longer a SF fighter, but he's still at Showtime fighter?
Source: MMAjunkie.comFedor Emelianenko is no longer a Strikeforce fighter.
But he is definitely still a Showtime fighter, according to his representatives.
UFC president Dana White said today that the former PRIDE champion's days in the hexagon have come to an end following a third consecutive loss this past Saturday in suburban Chicago.
"You guys thought he was the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world," White said at a media scrum following the pre-event press conference for UFC 133. "I said he was overrated for years."
White said "he thought so" when asked whether Emelianenko's contract was up and that Zuffa simply wasn't re-signing him.
The decision to cut Emelianenko, though, wasn't one in which he was involved.
"I'm so far removed from any of that [expletive]," he said.
Reached for comment on the release, M-1 Global Director of Operations Evgeni Kogan said to MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com), "Really? Given that [White] doesn't have a contract with Fedor, interesting."
Kogan stated that Emelianenko's contract lies not with the recently acquired Strikeforce but instead with Showtime Networks, Inc., who played a major role in bringing the Russian back to the negotiating table after talks with Strikeforce broke down in the latter half of 2010.
As part of a deal to bring Emelianenko back to the Strikeforce cage, Showtime negotiated a deal to broadcast four M-1 Global events in 2011. The first of those events took place this past March in Norfolk, Va.
Kogan indicated that Emelianenko may soon find a home with the promotion in which he also holds a minority ownership stake.
Emelienanko was stopped in the first round by Dan Henderson in the main event of "Strikeforce and M-1 Global: Fedor vs. Henderson." Afterward, he deflected comments about possible retirement and said a decision would be made after he returned to Russia to spend time with his family.