At a press-conference held on November, 19th in Saint-Petersburg Fedor Emelianenko along with M-1 Global president Vadim Finkelstein, Head of Russian office Vasily Tyutin, The secretary of Physical Education Committee of Saint
Petersburg Oleg Vdovin met with the media.
Vadim Finkelstein kicked off with thanking the fans for such a warm welcoming of Fedor at the airport: “I’m happy that MMA keeps growing here. This year we had 9 national tournament events in Russia that attracted a lot of attention among the fans and pundits. The audience kept growing and that helped and stimulated the fighters as well. December, 3 we’ll have the Grand Finale of both M-1 Selection Russia and our international M-1 Challenge here in Saint Petersburg. We are approaching sell-out. We hope in not so distant future mixfight will be as popular as any other kind of sports.”
Oleg Vdovin remarked the MMA conquer more and more territory in a sports life of Saint Petersburg which is reflected in the number of various media representatives attending the conference: “Yesterday when I turned off my TV after Russian football team failed to qualify for World Soccer Cup I caught myself thinking of – why wouldn’t our National Channel One (ORT) broadcast more of Fedor Emelianenko’s fights instead of several hours footage of our soccer team losing? TV audience would be happy to see a real Russian character, powerful and mentally strong.”
Fedor of course was asked about his health condition, preparations for the last fight and future plans “I feel well, thanks God! I’d like to keep fighting as long as possible. Anyway, I’m going to honor my contract with M-1 Global and Strikeforce and after its expiration I’ll see how I feel about the future.”
Below are some photgraphs of the event.
