Antonio Silva wants a fight with Fedor Emelianenko
In late August, Fedor “The Last Emperor” Emelianenko announced that he wanted his next MMA fight to be against current Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem. Overeem reportedly nixed the fight, saying that he was only interested in fighting the
man who recently defeated Fedor, Fabricio Werdum. But a new name has entered the mix to be next in line on Fedor’s fight card, Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva.
Silva’s manager offered the following, stating “...we’re hoping to fight Fedor. I think that’s a fight that makes sense. I think everybody wants to see it. We know that there have been historical problems with Fedor’s management, so right now we’re waiting
for Strikeforce to resolve them. I mean, we’d love to fight Fedor…”
Consensus rankings have both Silva and Fedor listed as top ten fighters in the heavyweight division.
If a Fedor vs. Silva fight doesn’t come to light, Silva said he would be willing to fight former Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight champion Josh Barnett, who recently signed a deal with Strikeforce.
Silva was the only fighter ever to hold the heavyweight title of the now defunct Elite XC organization. Silva holds a record of 14-2 in his MMA career, with his most recent victory coming over former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei “The Pitbull” Arlovski.
Silva defeated Arlovski via unanimous decision back in May of this year.
The Arlovski fight was the second bout for Silva under the Strikeforce banner. His first Strikeforce fight was against Werdum in November 2009. Werdum was victorious by unanimous decision in this three round bout.
Silva’s career has not been without controversy, as he tested positive for steroids in 2008. The positive test resulted in a one-year suspension by the California State Athletic Commission. For his part, Silva claimed the test was a false positive and that
he had never taken any banned substance. In addition to fighting for Strikeforce and Elite XC, Silva has taken part in promotions by Sengoku, BoDog, and K1 among others.
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