Fedor joins Strikeforce

The deal is done. The future of Fedor Emelianenko has been locked down. As was widely rumoured over the weekend, the Russian badass has signed a contract with Strikeforce, ending all the “Fedor must fight in the UFC” drama that’s been going on since Affliction shuttered its promotional operations and left Fedor without a cage to fight in.

Strikeforce, the UFC’s biggest competitor, confirmed that Emelianenko (30-1) has agreed to a multi-fight deal in events co-headlined by M-1 Global (the sticking point that caused the UFC deal to fall apart last week). Strikeforce has previously co-promoted with organizations such as EliteXC and BodogFIGHT. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Nor was any information about when or who Fedor would fight first, although it’s expected to happen sometime this fall during a Showtime-broadcast event. Obviously, Fedor, a longtime PRIDE champion who’s widely regarded as the sport’s top heavyweight, becomes an immediate challenger to Strikeforce’s heavyweight champ, Alistair Overeem. The problem is Overeem hasn’t fought since winning the title in November 2007 and was recently scratched from an Aug. 15 title bout with Fabricio Werdum because of a hand injury. I don’t know how anxious Overeem is going to be to make his first title defence against Fedor, assuming he’s healthy.

As Emelianenko’s manager, M-1 Global co-owner and president Vadim Finkelchtein is seen as the devil who prevented a very lucrative UFC deal from going through. Now, it seems he’s found an even sweeter deal, one that will see Fedor and M-1 become a lynchpin of the Strikeforce promotion, with each of their success tied to the other.

Strikeforce, which launched in 2006, is one of the few financially successful promotions outside of the UFC, with a highlights show on NBC and live events on Showtime and HDNet. It’s also rumoured to be close to a deal with CBS, the former home of the now-defunct EliteXC promotion, to air fights live in network primetime.