Despite M-1 Global Denials, Jeff Monson Still Adamant He’s Fighting Fedor In November

Heavyweight Jeff ‘The Snowman’ Monson (42-12) is still sticking by his word that he will face Russian fighter Fedor Emelianenko on November 12 in St. Petersburg, Russia.
M-1 Global director of operations, Evgeni Kogan, wouldn’t confirm the upcoming fight but stated “We are getting ready to release big news very soon,” too MMAFighting.com on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Monson talked to MMAFighting.com about the matchup, something he’s been trying to get for years but up until now has been turned down by Fedor’s M-1 Global management.

“I think basically it’s that he lost a couple and [M-1 Global] want[s] him to fight a guy with a name, but obviously they feel confident in the fight,” Monson said. “…Obviously, they think if he fought someone without a name that would look bad, and if he lost again that would also look bad.”
“I wish it was a year ago,” Monson said. “But I’ve said this before, he’s the best heavyweight of all time. Granted, he’s lost a couple in a row here, all against good guys, but other than that [TKO via cut] that wasn’t really a loss, what’d he go, ten years without losing? Nobody’s ever done that, ever. And he beat the best of the best. That was back when Pride definitely had the best heavyweights, and he beat everybody in Pride, and he finished people.”
“I’ve never been in the ring with someone where I was like, it’s an honor to be in there with this guy, but it is,” he said. “That doesn’t mean I’m not going to try and beat him, but it is an honor to fight him.”

Monson had an eight fight win streak stopped by Daniel Cormier in June at the Strikeforce: Overeem vs. Werdum show, losing that fight by unanimous decision. ‘The Snowman’ fought nine times in 2010 and three times so far in 2011, in that time span he’s put together a record of 9-3.