[mls]

It was announced at a press conference today that Tenshin Matsumoto of SK Absolute has signed a two-year contract with Blagoi Ivanov, the man who beat Fedor in Combat Sambo, for his activities in Japan.

Matsumoto saw Ivanov in Ferbuary in South Korea where he trained for three months and where he has a four-year contract with the South Korean Sambo League for his pro activities in Asia.

Matsumoto says that the intentions of Ivanov right now is to fight as a pro in Japan. He is interested in DREAM & SENGOKU and Matsumoto is already negotiating with those two organizations. If he were to fight in the U.S. he is more interested in the event where Fedor fights, Affliction, than the UFC. Matsumoto wants him to debut in summer at the latest.

He is of course being pushed as the man who brought down Fedor in Japanese media.

http://nightmareofbattle.wordpress.c...goku-or-dream/

[PirateNinja415]

this is pretty interesting, i'll be looking forward to his next fight.

[bbjd7]

I'm interesteed to see Ivanov make his MMA debut Combat Sambo is similar to MMA so a guy who gave Fedor such a tough time in Sambo obviously has a good chance at being successful.

[Tbown]

Does anyone have a link to his match vs Fedor? This guy should be interesting to watch since as BBJ pointed out Combat Sambo is a lot like MMA, and this dude apparently plays for keeps.
Japan gets *hopefully* another good HW.

[Wise]

Hopefully they dont get dumb and throw him to someone like Sergei right away.

Give him a Jimmy Ambriz to beat up to get some ring experience.

[Pauly_J]

Fedor didn't train for the fight and it was still real close. If he fights Fedor in MMA, Fedor will do the same to him as he did to TK. He's ruthless when people question whether or not he will win.

[plazzman]

Word.

Plus Fedor did drop him standing once already, and his Sambo striking is nothing like his MMA striking. He'll his Sambo in general is nothing like his MMA, and those two are inherantly the same.

Fedor should maul him if/when they fight.

But I'd like to see him beat up a few cans, as Wise said to get some good experience, I have no problem with him becoming a good fighter.

[bbjd7]

Who said he's beating Fedor? Anyone who thinks that is an idiot lol.

But he's a interesting guy to watch in fighting MMA because Combat Sambo has similarties to MMA it's probably as close as any discpline to MMA.

[JT42]

Should be interesting to see him in MMA and Japan is the place to be because they will likely match him up with some WW's or MW's