Aleks Emelianenko on Kimbo and the UFC

On Kimbo:
Aleks Emelianenko: In reality, as a fighter, as a fighter he’s weak. For me anyway. My promoter [Vadim Finkelshtein] suggested this fight to his promoters, that I go there and fight Kimbo. And they’re not taking the fight. They realize that for me he’s too weak.

I won’t be fighting with him, playing with him. I’ll go there and tear him apart, bite him in two. Exactly like it was with me and [James] Thompson, whom it took almost three rounds for Kimbo to put away. No. He’s to be congratulated on one hand, though. …

What does he need? For people to know about him. For people to have seen him. Everyone earns money anyway they can these days. He’s not a fighter, he’s not a sportsman. I’d say he’s more like a showman. I can say this about him.

As a sportsman he’s very one-dimensional. Hands? Is that all? These days everyone can use their hands. When fighters at a decent level compete, you won’t understand who he was before. A boxer or a wrestler. … I train with boxers. I used to beat -- I now beat world champions. I box with them. I’m not a fighter that fought with fatties, with who knows who on some field or something. That’s not a display of his prowess as a fighter. It’s just a show. They are elements of a show.

On the UFC:
Aleks Emelianenko: I also wanted to fight in the UFC . But as a Russian fighter, I’m not interesting to them. They are interested in their own, in Americans. That’s why they didn’t let me compete in their organization. They were saying that “We don’t want Aleksander to fight for us.” Because I’d arrive there, beat everyone and then take the belt back to Russia. They don’t need that.

Those organizers, promoters, they need their own person. That’s how they make their money. And that’s how they carry themselves, the UFC. I know that as of right now, they’ve ruined relationships with many and that many fighters have left them. They are now facing some very serious competition, and I think they’ll fall. I think they’ll fall to the second tier. To the place where they were, when Pride still existed.

Pride was better; Pride was number one in the world. So I think that it’s criticism of the organizers -- it’s not a criticism of the fighters. They’re worthy sportsmen. Good fighters. It’s a criticism of the organizers, of the promoters. They take everything and just wreck it. Instead they should be strengthening everything, making everything stronger, stronger and stronger. But people are leaving them.

Instead they now have very serious, very worthy competition in the world. And not that much time will go by before things change.

****Aleks is thinking the same things that Hardcore Fans is thinking, Im not surprised that he's thinking that way*****

http://www.sherdog.com/news/articles/2/From-Surviving-the-Streets-of-Russia-to-MMA-The-Story-of-Aleksander-Emelianenko-Part-2-13709

He's wrong about the UFC. Not that I think they do the best business, but they are top dog, and will be for awhile.

Affliction will be a flash in the pan. 3 shows and they're done.

UFC is going for global domination, why wouldn't they want the Russians? It's because Finkelstein is nuts. He wanted way to much money and all kinds of other things from the UFC.

UFC doesn't care about the Heavyweights, because no one wants to see 2, 265 pound guys laying on each other for 15 minutes. 205 and under is where it's at.

Aleks makes a great point. The UFC will start to lose a lot of their ighters as contract expires. They put on mediocore shows, headlined by maybe one good fight and the casual fans climb all over it. Affliction had a great first show and I hope they continue that way. BTW, it's not very often that you see heavyweights lay on each other for the entire match. Somebody is going to get knocked out, not sure where you got that from. I think hardcore MMA fan will appreciate good competition from a different organization. This way the UFC won't continue to put out crappy fight cards. Competition between organizations is good for the sport. Long live MMA!

Competition is always good for the buyer and/or fans. Competition brings in new life to the market. Would we have got to see A. Silva vs. Irvin that quickly if Affliction would not have had a card? Probably not. The days of low to mid tier cards are over. The UFC will need to do at least mediocre or higher to keep their status. While I do not think they will be knocked from the top dog position any time soon, anything could happen.

With Affliction doing so well on their first card and their second slated for Oct. 11 we may see start seeing the UFC looking at options they have once shunned. Maybe we will see the WEC roster invading the UFC occasionally?

Absolutely. I love MMA and think it has reignated my passion for sports. I was getting bored with watching the NBA, NFL, boxing, etc. because it doesn't really get my adrenaline pumping. UFC is a great organization because it put MMA on the map. However, they have become such a juggernaut in the states that they started putting out mediocore cards and I felt ripped off when watching these PPV events. I felt Pride had great content as well as fighters, and their demise took away a big threat to the UFC in terms of quality product. I hope Affliction can carry the momentum of the first event into October. If so I will definitely be making my way out to the Thomas & Mack catching this thing live. Fedor vs AA!!! Can't wait to see how the rest of the undercard will look like.

I like how he says he would pwn the UFC heavyweights and take the belt back to Russia, I totally agree. AE would of pwned all those UFC no namers. his sambo is top notch and lets all agree that AE on his feet is down right dangerous.

UFC sucks and will soon be 2nd tier like before, the UFC will still have its die hard TUF fans though, blogging us to death about how war machine and CB would kill Fedor in a fight but only if its in a cage not a ring cause rings are fking lame...derka der