Archive for March, 2010

Evgeni Kogan Chats With Knucklepit

© Marc Wickert www.knucklepit.com
Photography by Nick Komic
Special thanks to Jacob Schaap

Russia's Fedor Emeliananko Fighting out of the Red Corner

It’s been four months since Fedor Emelianenko defeated Brett Rogers in the Strikeforce/M-1 Global match in Chicago and MMA fans are still talking about that classic showdown and remain eager to see more of The Last Emperor.  Fortunately, M-1 Global’s Director of Operations, Evgeni Kogan, has some good news for readers.

At the time of this interview, Evgeni was in Holland when he spoke to Knucklepit and reflected on Strikeforce/M-1 Global’s Fedor vs. Rogers event.  “I was reasonably surprised because Rogers, I think, is originally from the suburbs of Chicago, so I was surprised by the warm response for Fedor.  When he came out the crowd just went wild.  At certain points they were chanting “Rogers, Rogers”, but when Fedor came out the crowd were definitely for him, and I was really surprised at how the American fans were behind a Russian from a small industrial mining town (Stary Oskol),” says Evgeni.

“I thought the event itself was lots of fun and it was a good card – the four fights aired live on TV were very good, and I thought that the actual Emelianenko vs. Rogers fight was unfortunate in that some people were not giving Rogers enough credit for being a worthy enough opponent for Fedor, because Brett actually ended up being a pretty strong opponent.  There were times during the fight when everyone going for Fedor was more or less concerned, so it was a good fight to see. Read the rest of this entry »