MMA Odds and Ends for Friday: Fedor’s opponent revealed, Bellator 148 adds Honeycutt vs. Bradley rematch

Fedor’s opponent revealed for Rizin NYE show Early this morning, Rizin Fighting Federation announced at press conference that Fedor Emelianenko will meet Jaideep Singh at their New Year’s Eve show at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan. MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani was first to break the news back in October despite the promotion initially refuting Helwani’s report. Emelianenko (34-4-1NC) hasn’t competed since a first round TKO victory over Pedro Rizzo at M-1 Global: Fedor vs. Rizzo way back in June of 2012. The Russian fighter is currently 39-years old. Singh, (40-10 Kickboxing, 2-0 MMA) most recently defeated Carlos Toyota at Deep Impact 73 this past October. He’s only fought twice since 2013. Here’s an updated look at the fight card(s) below: RIZIN Grand Prix Part 1 – Dec. 29 Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal vs. Brett McDermott Bruno Cappelozza vs. Teodoras Aukstuolis Satoshi Ishii vs. Jiri Prochazka Goran Reljic vs. Vadim Nemkov Valentin Moldavsky vs. Yuta Uchida (Reserve fight) Single Matches: Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Shinya Aoki A.J. Mathhews vs. Anatoly Tokov James Thompson vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka Hiroyuki Takaya vs. DJ Taiki Mixed Rules Kirill Sidelnikov vs. Carlos Toyota Kazuyuki Miyata vs. Hinata Watanabe Yuki Motoya vs. Felipe Efrain K-1 Rules Akiyo Nishiura vs. Hiroya Kawabe RIZIN Grand Prix Part 2 – Dec. 31 Grand Prix Tournament Final Brennan Ward vs. Ken Hasegawa Tournament Semi-final x 2 K-1 Rules Yang Ming vs. Takeru Kaido Höövelson vs. Jerome Le Banner Shoot Boxing Rules Bob Sapp vs. Akebono Kron Gracie vs Asen Yamamoto Gabi Garcia vs. Lei’d Tapa RENA vs. Jleana Valentino Yuichiro Nagashima vs. Andy Souwer   Report: Rashad Evans eyeing fight with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua  According to Ariel Helwani on “UFC Tonight,” Rashad Evans is looking to fight Maurico “Shogun” Rua sometime in March and it could be a five-round main event. Evans (19-4-1) is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Ryan Bader at UFC 192, which was his first fight in over two years due to injury. The 36-year old was slated to fight Rua at UFC 128 in March 2011, however the TUF 2 winner was forced out of that bout due to a different injury. Rua (23-10) is coming off a unanimous decision victory over Antônio Rogério Nogueira at UFC 190 back in August.   Bellator 148 adds more fights  Yesterday Jason Floyd of The MMA Report broke the news via Twitter that number of new fights have been added to the Bellator 148 event in January. Chris Honeycutt vs. Paul Bradley II  After their last bout was ruled a “No Contest” Honeycutt and Bradley look to settle the score. Honeycutt (6-0 1 NC) is one of Bellator’s hottest prospects and has won five of his six career bouts by finish. Bradley (22-6 2 NC) has has gone 2-2- NC in his last five fights and will be looking for his first two-fight win streak since 2012. Also added to the card were three matchups on the undercard including Anthony Avila vs. John Reedy, Javy Ayala vs. Carl Seumanutafa and Art Arcienega vs. Justin Smiley. Bellator 148 takes place Jan. 29th at the SaveMart Center in Frensno, CA and is headlined by former UFC title challenger Josh Koscheck taking on Matt Secor. Here’s a look at the updated card Josh Koscheck (17-10) vs. Matt Secor (7-2) Paul Daley (37-13-2) vs. Andy Uhrich (11-5) Chris Honeycutt (6-0)vs. Paul Bradley (22-6) Ilima-Lei Macfarlane (2-0) vs. Amber Tackett (1-1) Anthony Avila (12-4) vs. John Reedy (11-6) Javy Ayala (8-4) vs. Carl Seumanutafa (9-6) Art Arciniega (14-5) vs. Justin Smiley (N/A)   UFC Fight Night 83 adds TUF 22 teammate matchup Martin Svensson vs. David Teymur Svensson (14-5) was a member of Team McGregor on TUF 22 and a broken elbow forced him out out of his quarter-final matchup and the tournament. Prior to that he earned a decision victory over Mohamed Gabinski to earn his way into the tournament and then submitted Thanh Le to make it to the quarterfinals. Teymur (3-1) lost in the quarterfinals to Marcin Wrzosek via majority decision. Outside of the tournament, the lightweight fighter is currently on a three-fight win streak. UFC Fight Night 83 takes place Feb. 27 at The O2 in London

Written by James Lynch

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