Fedor Emelianenko’s next fight will be against former UFC heavyweight fighter Pedro Rizzo at an event in St.Petersburg, Russia on June 21st.
According to Fedor’s management team M-1 Global the show is likely to be shown on pay-per-view, though no official decision has been made yet.
The aura surrounding the Russian star has diminished in recent times after back-to-back losses during his time in the Strikeforce organization which brought an end to a 10 year unbeaten run, but he has since pieced together a couple of wins against Jeff Monson and Satoshi Ishii after being released from the promotion.
Meanwhile, Rizzo was also once a major force in MMA, three times fighting for the UFC heavyweight title around the turn of the century, but he never succeeded in getting the belt wrapped around his waist and eventually fell out of favor and left the promotion in 2003 with a 9-5 record.
Since then Rizzo has struggled to regain his form, suffering some brutal knockout losses to the likes of Josh Barnett and Gilbert Yvel along the way, while in recent years having to target less credible opponents like Ken Shamrock and Gary Goodridge in order to get back to winning ways.
It’s also worth noting that by the time the 36 year-old fights Fedor it’ll have been approximately two years since his last bout, so when you weigh everything up this isn’t exactly the kind of fight that’s going to fire the Russian back into the big leagues if he can get the victory, but unfortunately that’s the kind of competition that he’s left to face now that he’s completely out of the picture as far as Zuffa are concerned.
