European Throwdown

While the images of popular U.S. recording artists like 50 Cent and The Game thrive somewhat on the fact that they survived gunshot wounds, controversial Polish rapper Popek Rak (Pictures) is adding to his already significant street credibility by entering the realm of mixed martial arts.

Rak started out as a hustler in the streets of Legnica in southwestern Poland before moving to Cracow, where he joined five-man hip-hop formation Firma. The group raps about life on the streets and has gained a large underground fan base.

After spending most of the new millennium in Cracow, the heavyweight fighter moved to London last year. There he joined Team Titan Fighter in Enfield, which prepared him for his MMA debut, a second-round stoppage of fellow debutant Glen Reid (Pictures) at Cage Rage Contenders 8 in February.

The heavily tattooed brawler not only displayed decent wrestling skills combined with hard-hitting punches, he also brought an entourage of several hundred Polish fans with him. This nearly resulted in a riot, though Rak persuaded his supporters to calm down a little.

Being such a big draw, Cage Rage has done the obvious and moved him onto the big stage for his next fight against the similarly tattooed Kev Sims. The two heavyweights are bound to clash at Cage Rage 26 on May 10 at the NEC Arena in Birmingham, England.

It will be interesting to see how many fans of the 240-pound muscleman -- who names Tito Ortiz (Pictures), Chuck Liddell (Pictures), Ken Shamrock (Pictures) and Vitor Belfort (Pictures) as his role models -- will make the trip to central England and whether he will be able to "Rak up" another "W."

Meanwhile in Rak's home country of Poland, local promoters KSW have finalized the card for the March 29 Eliminacje 2, set to take place at the Hala Stulecia in Wroclaw. This time in their traditional tournament they are looking for the biggest native middleweight talent.

For the three superfights, promoters Maciej Kawulski and Martin Lewandowski have once again used their good connections to the Dutch fight scene and managed to book a Poland vs. Holland miniseries.

Headlining the show will again be their standout fighter, Mamed Khalidov. The "Cannibal," a winner in his last 11 fights, will go toe to toe with submission specialist Andre Fyeet. The younger brother of Evert Fyeet (Pictures) made the semifinals of last year's KSW 8 light heavyweight tournament.

Middleweight Tournament Participants:
Sebastian Olchawa
Michal Fijalka
Marcin Wojcik
Marek Kowalczyk
Arkadiusz Jedraczka
Lech Zamorski
Tomasz Niedzwiecki

Superfights:
Maciej Gorski vs. Danny Van Bergen
Krysztof Kulak vs. Nick Struve
Mamed Khalidov vs. Andre Fyeet

M-1 Mix Fight recently released the full fight card for its April 3 challenge show in St. Petersburg, Russia. In the main events, Roman Zentsov (Pictures) will face Junior Cigano, and Aleksander Emelianenko (Pictures) takes on Fabio Maldonado (Pictures) in two battles between Russia and Brazil.

The matchups should make for two good fights, especially the meeting between Fedor's younger brother and pro boxer Maldonado. Both Brazilians are students of UFC heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Pictures).

Since the 31-year-old BJJ black belt has recently started his own team, Vadim Finkelstein and company may want to see whether there is a chance to intensify business relationships in the future.

Rumors have it that Dream Vice President Sotaro Shinoda will also be at the Ice Palace to have a close look at the Japanese team he sent to take on the Russian hosts.