Did you miss me? The much-anticipated, most thorough rankings in mixed martial arts returns with Fighters.com's July Heavyweight Rankings. Let's get right to it, shall we?

"Last Emperor" Fedor Emelianenko (29-1) retains the Fighters.com heavyweight championship, which he's set to defend from ninth-ranked "Babyface Assassin" Josh Barnett (20-5) at Affliction M-1 Global's Trilogy in Anaheim 1 August.

But, with Affliction's run thought to be at its end, Fighters.com worries that whomever wins will return to Japan to fight freaks and middleweights.
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The M-1 Challenge finals for the 2008 season will take place between Team Red Devil of Russia and Team Holland 26 December in Tacoma, near Seattle, WA, M-1 Global announced Monday. The match-ups are as follows: Lightweights Mikhail Malutin (7-5) v Bogdan Christea (4-2-1) Welterweights Erik Oganov (8-7) v Romano de los Reyes (5-3) Middleweights Dimitry Samoylov (5-4) v Jason Jones (5-2) Light heavyweights Mikhail Zayats (7-1) v Kamil Uyghun (6-3) Heavyweights Alexey Oleynik (6-4) v Jessie Gibs (3-0) Also participating in non-tournament bouts are Makhtar Gueye (3-2) of France, Tommy Depret (4-0) of Belgium, “Skull Cracker” Mike Dolce (2-5) of the USA, and Toni Valtonen (13-6) of Finland. ...

Heavyweight "Hurricaine" Gilbert Yvel (30-12-1) will fight in the co-main event at M-1 Challenge 9 in St. Petersburg 21 November versus an opponent to be named soon, Fighters.com learned from M-1's Russian division today. M-1 told Fighters.com that Yvel will not rematch Red Devil heavyweight Roman Zentsov (17-12), who knocked Yvel out in a 2006 PRIDE fight. The event will be lead by the return of Fighters.com's tenth-ranked heavyweight Aleksander Emelianenko (12-3) after the commission debacle before Affliction's debut in Anaheim, east of Los Angeles, 19 July.  Emelianenko will fight Korean Sang Soo Lee (9-4). The event will also feature a team format with bouts between Russia's Red Devil team versus Korea and Russia's Legion team versus Holland. ...

Vadim Finkelstein is ready to bring about a battle between Fighters.com’s Heavyweight Champion “Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko (28-1) and fifth-ranked “The Natural” Randy Couture (16-8), WAMMA and UFC champion respectively, but said the conditions offered by the UFC are “unacceptable”. “Fedor will not sign to the enslaving terms of a UFC contract, and the UFC just doesn’t want to compromise.” Finkelstein, M-1 Global president and Emelianenko’s manager, was responding Friday to UFC president Dana White’s recent comment to the Boston Herald that “[the UFC’s] door is wide open” to Emelianenko. “Dana says that the UFC’s doors are wide open.  Maybe they are. But these doors are also shut tightly once the fighter signs with the organization,” he stated. Finkelstein does not believe Emelianenko has anything to prove in the UFC; he has defeated three former UFC champions, and current interim champion and second-ranked heavyweight “Mintotauro” Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (31-4-1) twice, and can face third-ranked “Pitbull” Andrei Arlovski (14-5) and sixth-ranked “Babyface Assassin” Josh Barnett (23-5) at Affliction. Finkelstein added, “I believe Dana White in the past has done more for MMA than anybody else, but now he is the one who is hindering the progress of our sport.  He is like a man who has a large tasty pie and is afraid someone will come and take a bite of it.” ...

Affliction Entertainment, in collaboration with M-1 Global and Donald Trump, will produce the reality television show Fighting Fedor, the organization announced Thursday. Fighting Fedor will feature sixteen heavyweights from around the world competing tournament-style for the chance to fight WAMMA Heavyweight Champion “Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko (28-1) on a future Affliction card. The fighters will live and train at the Red Devil Sports Club in St. Petersburg, Russia. Filming is expected to begin in April 2009.  No broadcast partner has been determined yet. Plans for the series had been in the works for several months, but details about the show had been scant. Emelianenko, Fighters.com's Heavyweight Champion, is next expected to fight “Pitbull” Andrei Arlovski at Affliction’s next event, although no official announcement has been made. ...

Fighters.com's ninth-ranked heavyweight Aleksander Emelianenko (13-3) is scheduled to fight Sang Soo Lee (9-4) in St. Petersburg 21 November, M-1 announced Sunday. The match-up is Emelianenko's first since being denied a license to fight "Headhunter" Paul Buentello (26-10) by the California State Athletic Commission in July. Emelianenko publicly denied rumors that he was denied a license because of a positive test for Hepatitis. Emelianenko rolled through Silvao Santos (1-1) in St. Petersburg 3 April. Lee tapped Emelianenko's Red Devil teammate Roman Zentsov (17-3) in a triangle choke in Seoul 29 August. The fight will feature as one of two Super Fights at M-1 Challenge 9. ...

A rematch between badass British pugilist Wayne Buck (4-1) and Italian Muay Thai wrecker Matteo Minonzio (7-6) headlines a 13-fight card in Nottingham 27 September. Minonzio forced a doctor stoppage "W" over Buck in Nottingham in July, handing Buck his first MMA loss. Buck is a retired boxer hailing from Nottingham and looking for revenge.  He ended his career in the ring in 2000 at 10-4-1, winning his final five fights. Saturday afternoon before the fights, Red Devil fighter and coach Fighters.com's ninth-ranked heavyweight Aleksander Emelianenko (13-3) will hold a seminar featuring DREAM Middleweight GP Champion Gegard Mousasi (24-2-1), UFC welterweight "Outlaw" Dan Hardy (19-6), and "The Machine" Ian Freeman (19-7-1). Just a week after winning a split decision over Brandon Thatch (3-1) in Beverly Hills, north of Los Angeles, Brandon Magana (6-1) will fight Red Devil's Erik Oganov (7-7) in Nottingham. ...

M-1 Global announced Wednesday that they have signed a deal with HDNet, which will air the 2008 first season of M-1 Challenge for North American audiences starting 19 September. Viewers in other countries will also be able to watch: in African countries on the GTV channel, in Korea on CBS, in Brazil on SporTV, in the Philippines on Solar, and in India on ZEE. The M-1 Challenge is an international competition involving teams from Finland, France, Japan, Korea, The Netherlands, two from Russia (Legion and Red Devil), Spain, USA, and a World Star Team. ...

Bulgarian wrestler Jordan Radev (13-3), whose UFC career consisted of getting knocked out in 33 seconds by "Massacre" Andrew McFedries (7-3) and losing a UD to "Boogieman" Dean Lister (11-5), will fight Japanese middleweight Yuya Shirai (12-6) as a member of Team World at M-1 Challenge in Korea 29 August. Welterweight Jake Ellenberger (18-4) will return after a successful Team USA debut in July to face Korean Doo Won Seo (1-2) on the card. Lightweight Daisuke Nakamura (16-9) returns to Team Japan versus Berlgian "Moreno" Wim Deputter (18-2) while welterweight Hidehiko Hasegawa (13-10-6) debuts versus American Top Team's Norman Paraisy (4-0). Russian Roman Zentsov (17-12) will headline the event in a rematch versus Korean Sang Soo Lee (8-4). ...

Most noted for renting his cranium as a target to a comeback-bound "Cro Cop" Mirko Filipovic (23-6-2) at DREAM.1 last March, Japanese any weight Tatsuya Mizuno (4-3) tasted the the sweet side of a knockout Thursday night in Tokyo at M-1 Challenge 5. Mizuno dispatched Yoshiyuki Nakanishi (3-1) at 4:13 of round one in the main event. American Jake Ellenberger (18-4) bounced back from a UD loss in Portland 20 June to win a UD over Frenchman "Paco" Farouk Lakebir (2-1) in Ellenberger's Japan debut. Countryman and former TUF contestant Mike Dolce (3-5) was TKO'd at 41 seconds of round two by middleweight "Psycho" Karl Amoussou (7-1-1) of France. It was Dolce's first action since season seven of TUF. ...

Fighters.com tenth-ranked heavyweight Aleksander Emelianenko (13-3) beat Brazilian Silvao Santos (1-1) into the fetal position in the first round at M-1 Challenge in St. Petersburg Thursday. Emelianenko's teammates Amar Suloev (24-7) and Roman Zentsov (17-12) also scored wins for the home team, while Japanese fighters "Andre" Yuta Watanabe (8-1-3) and Ken Hamamura (14-4-4) picked-up victories on foreign soil. In the same kind of Finkelsteinian matchmaking that has kept "The Last Emperor" Fedor Emelianenko (27-1) from meaningful MMA for over two-and-a-half years, li'l brother Aleks was paired with Santos whose only other professional MMA appearance ended in a split decision victory over that notorious gatekeeper to top ten contention, Edson Conterraneo (3-1). Note my sarcasm. The big Brazilian circled Russia's finest before a shot stuffed and swept by Aleks into a textbook uchi mata makikomi toss landing Emelianenko in Santos's half-guard. Strong Santos stood out of Emelianenko's half-mount, but into a near standing guillotine the Russian wrenched like a neck crank. Emelianenko muscled Santos into a corner, released the choke, and hopped into a flying knee that effectively ended the fight. Santos shot forward for a desperate single-leg lunge, but Emelianenko sprawled and pummeled the Brazilian with a series of rights as the referee dove to Santos's rescue. Emelianenko's middleweight Red Devil Sport Club stablemate, Suloev, bounced back from a second round TKO to Chael Sonnen (20-9-1) last July to TKO Jacek Buczko (11-4), who hadn't fought in two-and-a-half years, in the first round. Heavyweight Zentsov also rebounded from an '07 stoppage loss to deal undersized Daniel Tabera (9-1-2) of Spain his first "L" in a two-round decision. DEEP middleweight vet Watanabe dealt Ansar Chalangov (7-4) his fourth consecutive defeat in a first-round rear naked choke.  It was Watanabe's first fight out of country. Welterweight Hamamura also ventured out of the "Land of the Rising Sun" for the first time to TKO Russia's Islam Karimov (5-4-1) in the second round. The event also saw Akhmet Sultanov (2-0) submit multi-promotion veteran Katsuhisa Fuji (8-14-1) in a first-round armbar. Besiki Gerenava (5-0) won a decision over Pancrase vet Yuji Sakuragi (9-10-1). U-File Camp's Daisuke Nakamura (13-9) decisioned Juri Ivlev (4-3). Victor Nemkov (1-0) debuted with a triangle choke submission of fellow rookie Christian Bombay (0-1). Team Scandinavia's Jarno Nurminen (2-1) forced Ji Hoon Kim's (1-6) corner to throw in the towel in the first round. Heavyweight Fin Toni Valtonen (15-7) submitted South Korean Seung Hyun Choi (0-2) in a rear naked choke in the first round. Hyun Gyu Lim (2-1-1) knocked out Brazil's Lucio Linhares (7-3) in the first round. Lightweight Janne Tulirinta (7-2) TKO'd Doo Won Seo (1-2) in round two. Finally, lightweight Niko Puhakka (11-6) of Finland submitted Jong Man Kim (3-5-2) in a triangle choke in round one. ...