Bulgarian sambo expert Blagoi Ivanov stunned observers last November when he defeated otherwise unpunctured Fedor Emelianenko in a Sambo rules bout in Russia. Sambo, for the uninitiated, is a little like MMA, but with headgear and a bunch of unpleasantness -- like chokes -- removed. Emelianenko’s software program may have gotten confused.
Riding high, Ivanov now appears set to make his MMA debut against iron-jawed Kazuyuki Fujita for Japanese promotion Sengoku on August 2.
It’s a tough fight for Ivanov -- Fujita hits hard, has solid wrestling and was once notoriously hard to damage -- but it’s not insurmountable. Fujita is pushing 40 and hasn’t competed in over a year. It appears academic that Sengoku will try to raise Ivanov’s profile for a rematch with Emelianenko.