New Igor Vovchanchyn interview and some MMA predictions for the year 2008

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Editor's note: this post is re-published from Diary section

Sibling Sports Announces New Mixed Martial Arts Organization M-1 Global and Names Monte Cox as President and CEO of M-1 Global.

NEW YORK, Oct. 22 PRNewswire-FirstCall -- Sibling Entertainment Group Holdings, Inc. ["Sibling Holdings"] announced Sibling Theatricals, Inc. ["Sibling Theatricals"], a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sibling Entertainment Group, Inc., together with Garlin Holdings Limited as Managing Members, have formed Sibling Sports, LLC (a Delaware limited liability company) for the purpose of creating M-1 Global, LLC (a New York limited liability company), a new mixed martial arts organization.

In addition, Monte Cox, a 13-year veteran of the mixed martial arts industry, was named President and CEO of M-1 Global.

http://russianmma.blogspot.com/2007/10/monte-cox-as-president-and-ceo-of-m-1.html

The UFC legend Oleg Taktarov returns to fight in a Mixed Martial Arts bout!

According to the information from Kassir, Russian ticket selling service, Oleg Taktarov will be fighting John Marsh (7-6-0) during a bodogFIGHT organized "Russia vs. USA" event, which will be held on November 30th in Moscow.

Oleg Taktarov is a legendary Russian Sambo-style fighter, who won UFC 6 - Clash of the Titans event after a tough 17:45 minute fight against another UFC legend David "Tank" Abbott.

More info: http://russianmma.blogspot.com/2007/10/ufc-legend-oleg-taktarov-returns-to.html

P.S. http://russianmma.blogspot.com also has some more interesting news/articles.

http://russianmma.blogspot.com/2007/10/cage-fighting-championships-offers-3.html

New MMA Organization Cage Fighting Championships, Inc. (CFC) Offers $3 Million Purse for Randy Couture VS Fedor Emelianenko

Monday October 15, 1:45 pm ET

DAVIE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Cage Fighting Championships (CFC) Spokesperson Crawford Grimsley announced today, "The CFC will put up a $3,000,000 purse to bring the Couture vs Emelianenko fight to Pay-Per-View. $1,000,000 will be guaranteed to each fighter while the winner takes home an additional cool million, making this the largest single purse for any one MMA fight."

Grimsley, a former heavyweight boxer who went 12 rounds with big George Foreman for the world title in 1996 said, "I don't know who set up the current MMA system of sanctioning bodies locking fighters into exclusive long term contracts. I do know who is out to change this system though, we are, the CFC. We are not going to try to reinvent the wheel, but we would like to add a little of the business model that professional boxing has adopted for decades. Can you imagine if professional boxing would not allow champion to fight champion. How many great boxing matches would we have missed?"

Grimsley added, "The UFC has made this sport into what it is today and my hat is off to them, but in the same regard, we feel the sport must allow the best from any league to fight each other when the time is right. We are willing to sit down with any and all parties necessary to make this fight happen including the UFC, Randy Couture, the Gersh Agency, Fedor Emelianenko, his manager Vadim Finkelstein and M-1. It happens everyday in boxing. That's how you get an undisputed champion. This exclusivity only hurts the sport, the fans, the fighters and the amount of money a fighter can make. We are going to do everything we can to bring this fight and many others currently prohibited. It's time for the MMA to change for the benefit of the fighters and fans, not the sanctioning bodies."

The first CFC event took place October 6, 2007 and has already hit the radar of Mark Cuban's HDNet Network, which only broadcasts in 1080i High Definition, and the hit show Inside MMA. Highlights of the first CFC Middleweight Title fight "Let the Rage Begin" aired this last Friday, October 12, 2007.

Anyone thinks it's realistic scenario?

http://russianmma.blogspot.com/2007/10/ricardo-arona-denies-having-signed-with.html

Tatame magazine just published a brief interview with Ricardo Arona where he denies having signed with M-1.

He says that he had heard rumors on the Internet, about him allegedly signing with M-1 but never actually received an offer from them. In fact he claims to have never even heard of the event.

and

Pride FC Champion Fedor Emelianenko, during his Master Class training in the Russian city of Kstovo (5-6 October, 2007), tells in the interview that he already signed a contract and will be fighting in December of this year.

And I actually believed in that rumour about Fedor vs Arona fight... :(