Fedor Emelianenko, Josh Barnett, Alistair Overeem and the Non-UFC Heavyweight Mess

As most people have heard by now, Josh Barnett is the major heavyweight that DREAM is going to be booking for their late March show, but is still without an opponent. Tim Sylvia has turned down a fight with Josh Barnett and will instead fight Wes Sims in Canada because Ohio refuses to license the fight, and on top of that, he is apparently fighting Mariusz Pudzianowski in Massachusetts. Sylvia's road to recovery is apparently taking easy fights in hopes of being signed to UFC again. Antonio Silva was also called upon, but apparently has plans for Strikeforce in April against either Andrei Arlovski or Brett Rogers. So this is telling us the following; Sylvia is still a goof, Silva vs. either Andrei or Rogers is in discussion and Josh Barnett is potentially putting his career in the US on the line to fight in DREAM by crossing the CSAC who have refused him a license. 

Then there is Fedor Emelianenko. According to some message board poster, Fedor is currently training for an upcoming fight, claimed to be in the US. It is not hard to believe that Fedor is training for an upcoming fight, but it is a tough sell that it is for a fight in the United States just yet. There is a chance that his camp believes things with Strikeforce, but according to sources within M-1, things look rather grim. According to M-1 Global, Strikeforce has not honored the contract that they signed with M-1 and the only way Fedor will fight in a Strikeforce cage again is if they sign a new contract. M-1 is looking for a partner and to have Strikeforce cards featuring Fedor to be fully co-promoted cards. 

To put it bluntly, M-1 Global is looking at other potential partners right now if Strikeforce doesn't shape up. Generally speaking, that does not mean there is a healthy relationship with Strikeforce and that the chances of seeing Fedor fighting outside of Strikeforce have gone up. Now, is this just them trying to scare Strikeforce into conceding to their demands or are they seriously shopping Fedor and M-1 Global around is the question. 

So where does the horse meat-eating Alistair Overeem fit into this equation? K-1 has listed him as a possible participant in the K-1 World Grand Prix in Yokohama, and this lines up with our previous reports of Alistair having one last K-1 bout in March or April. I've recently spoken to one of the most outspoken men in combat sports, Bas Boon, the manager of Golden Glory fighters like Alistair Overeem and Sem Schilt. Bas and his relationship with M-1 Global is no secret, they do not agree with each other, but both Boon and Finklestein have gone on record with HKL saying that they would do business with each other in regards to booking Overeem vs. Fedor. When prompted as to who GG has been in talks with for Overeem to fight and if it will be in K-1 or DREAM, he offered a very uncharacteristic response that he could not comment, as they were still negotiating. Bas Boon does not "no comment." That could mean a lot of thing, so take it as you will.

SBN coverage of DREAM.13