[quote]On Thursday at a press conference at Trump Tower in New York City, Affliction Entertainment announced a partnership with M-1 Global to produce “Fighting Fedor,” a new reality show featuring famed heavyweight Russian fighter Fedor Emelianenko.
Trump Enterprises, led by business mogul and Affliction executive Donald Trump, is also supporting the program.
“Fighting Fedor” will feature 16 heavyweight fighters competing in a tournament format. The talent, culled from around the world, will arrive at the Red Devil camp in St. Peterburg, Russia, for the competition until one winner emerges.
However, though company executives say they’re in negotiations with a variety of potential American broadcast partners, few details about the reality show were revealed. The recruitment of fighters has begun, but no debut date has been determined.
M-1 first teased the possibility of the “Fighting Fedor” series back in February. However, the organization only recently launched plans to penetrate the U.S. market and likely held off on producing the series until the partnership with Affliction was forged. Like Emelianenko himself, the organization is still trying to gain some traction in the U.S.
The winner of the reality series will fight Emelianenko, the current World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts heavyweight champion and No. 1 ranked heavyweight fighter, on a future Affliction card. However, the series could lose some of its luster if Emelianenko suffers a defeat on Jan. 24, when the Russian is expected to fight Andrei Arlovski (or possibly Josh Barnett) in Anaheim, Calif. (Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio, who’s already been forced to postpone the “Day of Reckoning” card once before, will only say the event will take place in the first quarter of 2009.)
During Thursday’s press conference, Affliction also announced Emelianenko had been signed to a contract extension. [/quote]
Honestly, I think this is a horrible idea.
However, I hope it will get US coverage so I can watch it. Having a reality TV tournament like TUF and then having the winner square off against E-FED… are you nuts?