Fedor’s Greatest Challenge

It's another Friday morning in Midtown Manhattan, and the Avenue Restaurant at the Sheraton New York is full of tourists.

Over eggs and coffee and the clinking of forks against plates, these visitors chat about the day ahead. They are anxious to get started. Times Square is just a few blocks south, Rockefeller Center a few east, Central Park to the north and within sight.

They might view Manhattan from the observation deck on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. Might visit where Lennon was shot at the Dakota or catch a celebrity strolling down Central Park East in a ball cap and glasses.

And as they finish off their toast, their orange juice and prepare to hit the sidewalks, among them, unnoticed, sits a man considered the best heavyweight fighter on the planet.

Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures) wears blue jeans, a denim jacket and black tennis shoes. The people who consider him the best in the world are the ones who have seen him fight.

These tourists have not. To them, he must seem no one special. Some stout stranger, 6-foot tall and 230 pounds, who speaks in a foreign tongue when he speaks at all.

Now he's pacing the hotel lobby. His gait is casual, confident. A Russian radio station has scheduled an interview, but they're not ready, they're ready, they're not ready. No frustration from Fedor. His stoicism is legendary.

Just watch his many entrances in Pride, thousands of Japanese fans in attendance, lights out in the arena except for where he moves. Croatian kickboxer Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic waiting for him in the ring, UFC interim heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Pictures) waiting for him, Mark Hunt (Pictures) waiting for him. And Fedor's expression on his way into battle? Eerie impassivity.

Now is an understandable time to be frustrated, though. He's been doing interviews for days. A news conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday, one in New York on Thursday. Appearances and pictures and autographs -- all in the name of Affliction, the clothing company turned MMA promoter that has signed Fedor to headline its July 19 debut at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.

His interpreter, Antonina Dzhomardova, tells of an exhausting day dedicated entirely to interviews. It reached a point where she was struggling to keep a straight face while translating questions that had already been asked a half-dozen times. Yet Fedor gave no hint of irritation. She says he answered each inquiry as if it were new, stood and thanked his interviewer when finished, then sat down with the next one and smiled.

Fedor gets it. Whether America will get him, however, is uncertain.

In April 2007 he headlined a Bodog Fight event that sold an abysmal 12,000 pay-per-views, Bodog Fight Commissioner Jeff Osborne (Pictures) recently told The Fight Network. A big UFC event can sell 500,000 or far more.

Bodog Fight is essentially dead now, and Osborne predicts a similar fate for Affliction. Other insiders join him in pointing to Fedor's compensation, which has been rumored to fall in the neighborhood of $1.5 million to $2 million, as well as the overall fight purse for the event as a major burden to turning a profit. The experts argue that Fedor is a great fighter but not a popular one -- not in the United States anyway.

Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio (Pictures) disagrees.

"Do we think we're going to take a loss? No," he says of Affliction's first MMA event. "Are we prepared for it? Yes."

Atencio blames Bodog's failures with Fedor on marketing. Bodog had a "monstrous" advertising budget, according to Osborne, which included plastering Fedor's image in the New York City subways. Pride's U.S. venture with Fedor at the top of the card didn't sell many pay-per-views either. Yet Atencio still contends that "The Last Emperor" hasn't been marketed properly in the United States.

"I know for a fact that not very many people knew about [Fedor's fights in the United States]," Atencio says. "I've been in this industry for a long time and I didn't really hear anything about it, especially with Bodog."

Bodog matched Fedor against Matt Lindland (Pictures), who, although a quality fighter, is not a heavyweight in stature or drawing power. Affliction will pair the Russian against former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia (Pictures), who has headlined multiple UFC events. Whether Sylvia can capture similar interest outside of the UFC, though, or send attention Fedor's way, remains to be seen.

Accordingly, Atencio refrains from saying how many pay-per-views Affliction hopes to sell. He knows that naming a number would be like loading a gun that's sure to go off in the promotion's face if expectations aren't met. That's because the MMA industry has come to expect pay-per-view disasters from shows not named UFC.

Affliction's strategy includes marketing Fedor to the Russian community. The clothing company also plans on using its relationships with department stores such as Bloomingdales and Nordstrom's to make sure that fans -- whether new, casual or hardcore -- know that the top heavyweight in the world will be fighting a former UFC titleholder.

In certain circles, of course, Fedor is already known. Tourists here in Manhattan may overlook him, but fans at Affliction's news conferences lined up to meet the 31-year-old. Donald Trump sat in the front row at the New York presser, shook Fedor's hand and offered his support for Affliction. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has also watched Fedor fight in person, which testifies to the fighter's reputation in Russia, especially when one considers whether George Bush might ever sit Octagon-side in support of the best U.S. heavyweight.

As for what happened with the Pride and Bodog pay-per-views, Fedor echoes Atencio's views by saying they were poorly marketed.

"I think the [Affliction] pay-per-view will be higher of course because this is the most important event of this year," Fedor says. "And it is marketed very wisely. Affliction pulling together with M-1, they are making a good team. They have completed a lot and they have a good future."