Fedor Emelianenko Will Likely Square Off Against Either Arlovski Or Barnett

Affliction management recently made the announcement that their October 11th PPV card in Las Vegas would be pushed back to January (January 17th, 2009 to precise) and moved to Anaheim.

As you may or may not have known, Fedor Emelianenko was not going to fight on the October 11th card due to a hand injury that he suffered in his fight against Tim Sylvia. This was obviously a big blow to Affiliction, as Fedor is the biggest draw in their company. The early days of the Affliction promotion are the most important, and in order to make the biggest splash possible, Affliction needs their biggest stars healthy and fighting regularly.

By the time that January rolls around, Fedor will be completely healed and available to fight. The main question is: who will he fight? You can only assume that Affliction will still want to have the Arlovski vs Barnett fight that was originally going to headline the card in October. This doesn't really leave too many options as to who can fight Fedor, and I will be interested to see how Affliction solves this problem.

The other possible benefit of bumping the card back to January is that you give Tito Ortiz a chance to participate on the card (assuming that he ends up signing with Affliction, which he most likely will). A card that is co-headlined by Fedor Emelianenko and Tito Ortiz would be a big draw and certainly keep the momentum of the company going. This is pure speculation though, as Ortiz hasn't announced his intended destination as of yet. Some people are even speculating that Ortiz may fight Fedor, but I don't see this happening. Why would Affliction want to have one of their biggest draws squashed? I would still say that a Tito / Babalu match as a high probability of taking place.

Back to Fedor - I think that the only real option that Affliction has is to break up the proposed Arlovski / Barnett fight. A Fedor vs Arlovski fight would be a big draw, but I believe that Barnett is the highest ranked heavyweight in the promotion. The fighter who doesn't fight Fedor would likely end up squaring off against Tim Sylvia. This is the most logical choice to me. I have a feeling that Fedor will end up fighting Arlovski, and Barnett will end up taking on Sylvia. A Fedor / Barnett fight would be great as well though.

We should find out more soon.

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