Well for all of you Fedor Emelianenko fans, Friday the 4th of June 2010 is a big day for you. We’ve tried to soften the blow of his possible retirement by providing you with some Fedor extra’s today.

Here are the latest photo’s of Fedor’s training camp from Stary Oskol in Russia.

You can view all of the photo’s by visiting M-1 Global.

More pictures after the jump

The top ranked, pound-for-pound best mixed-martial-arts heavyweight in the World will be apparently entering the political arena in his homeland of Russia according to a press release on M-1 Global’s Russian site.

The news was broken late last night by MiddleEasy.com who also offered this rumor, Fedor will retire from MMA after he finishes his last two fights with Strikeforce.

Wow, sit there and analyze that for a second.

If that’s true then fans will never see the current WAMMA heavyweight champ in the octagon, ever.

That is just depressing.

Well, here is the English translation of the Press Release.

Today, on May 28, regional [politsovet] party “united Russia” it approved the list of candidates for the inner-party selections – [praymeriz]. In the list of 58 candidates. Not less than 10 000 [edinorossov] by voting will determine the good, which will obtain the first places in the party list on the future October selections into the Belgorod Regional Duma.

In the list of the preliminary voting there are 24 debutants, which never participated in the selections into the organs of legislative authority. One of the achievements became the start in the list not only of the members “united Russia”, but it is also simple the supporters of the party and even the nonpartisan candidates. This for example the managing director of the combine Of [kMAruda] Vladimir [Tomaev] the head of corporation ZhBK -1 Yuri Selivan. They not only are not Party members, but also, working in [obldume] of the fourth convocation, they did not enter into the Duma faction of [edinorossov].

According to the leader of public receiving party Yuri [Seliverstova], among Belgorod [edinorossov] there were the discussions about that, it is worthwhile to advance from the party of non-party members. They arrived at the positive solution. This made it possible to advance the number of candidates, who represent the public organizations of region, chairmen of the organization of invalids “Soyuz-[Chernobyl]”, the organizations of the veterans of internal affairs and others Among the most remarkable candidates, besides the acting deputies of [obldumy] (Anatoliy [Zelikova], Victor [Filatova], Vadim [Klet], Valerie [Skrug], Ivan [Kulabukhova], Vladimir [Kulikovskogo]), the famous athlete of Fedor [Emelyanenko], the new rector OF [BGTU] Sergey [Glagolev] (by the way, non-party member), the director of the institute for the state and municipal administration Of [belGU] Alexander [Mamatov].

Fedor will face former UFC fighter Fabricio Werdum later this month at the upcoming co-promoted “Strikeforce and M-1 Global: Fedor vs. Werdum” event set to happen at the HP Pavilion Centre in San Jose, Cali. on June 26.

On Wednesday, M-1 Global announced the latest bout for the upcoming co-promoted “Strikeforce and M-1 Global: Fedor vs. Werdum” event.

Undefeated M-1 Challenge veteran Magomed Shihshabekov (11-0) will face AKA fighter Ron Keslar (5-1) in a welterweight bout and will appear on the unaired preliminary card of the event.

The co-promoted “Strikeforce and M-1 Global: Fedor vs. Werdum” event is scheduled for June 26 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Cali. and will be headlined by a WAMMA heavyweight title bout between champion Fedor Emelianenko vs. former UFC fighter Fabricio Werdum.

A search of Shihshabekov record will show a 6-0 undefeated streak as five of his other victories have gone unrecognized in the U.S. fighter databases.

Shihshabekov is a member of Russia Legion and last competed at the M-1 Global Challenge Finals in December, defeating Gerson Dos Santos at the event. Six of his recorded victories have all come by first-round stoppage.

His opponent, Keslar is riding a winning streak of his own, having won his last four bouts, three of which came via submission. His last appearance was at a KOTC event in February where he submitted Jonathan Brandon by rear-naked-choke in the second round.

CHICAGO, Ill. (June 1, 2010) — Bellator Fighting Championships announced today that it will bring the much-anticipated finale of its highly successful second season to the Fourth Street Live entertainment district in downtown Louisville, Ky., on June 24th.

The event—which will be broadcast LIVE on FOX Sports Net and during weekend highlight shows on NBC, Telemundo and mun2—marks the first time ever that a major national mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion has staged an event in the Bluegrass State.

It will also mark the first time that a live sporting event will be held at Fourth Street Live, a state-of-the-art, open-air, mixed-use entertainment venue owned and managed by The Cordish Company.

Tickets are on sale now at Ticketsweb.com.

“If you’ve ever been to Fourth Street Live, I think you can envision what a spectacular and exciting event this is going to be,” said Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney. “We are extremely proud to be partnering with The Cordish Company to bring the Bellator brand of MMA to Louisville and the hundreds of thousands of MMA fans in the Greater Louisville area.”

The evening will feature two championship fights in Bellator’s ongoing Season 2 Middleweight and Featherweight Tournaments.

In the first fight, world champion Greco-Roman wrestler and former NCAA all-American Joe Warren (4-1) will face undefeated Brazilian jiu-jitsu black-belt Patricio Pitbull (14-0) in the Featherweight Tournament Finals. The winner will earn the title of No. 1 Contender to reigning Bellator Featherweight Champion Joe Soto (9-0) and the chance to face Soto in a title fight later this year.

Then, in the Middleweight Tournament Finals, 13-1 WEC veteran Bryan “The Beast” Baker looks to continue his seven-fight winning streak when he squares off with Russian striker Alexander “Storm” Shlemenko (29-4). The winner will earn the title of No. 1 Contender to reigning Bellator Middleweight Champion Hector Lombard (25-2-1) and the chance to face Lombard in a title fight later this year.

In the spirit of Rocky Balboa, the Louisville card will also include six “Local Feature Fights” showcasing top up-and-coming fighters from Louisville, Cincinnati and Southern Indiana with selected winners qualifying to compete at future Bellator events. Competitors will be announced over the coming weeks.

This is the final event in Bellator’s 12-week-long second season. Season 3 kicks off on Aug. 12 in Hollywood, Fla.

Bellator has also held highly successful Season 2 events in Miami, Chicago, Kansas City, Boston, Dallas and San Antonio this year.

For more information, visit Bellator.com, follow Bellator on Twitter @BellatorMMA or on Facebook at Facebook.com/Bellator.

For the men, Japan has won the team open title; while for the women, Russia is victorious at the IPF World Bench Press Championships in Killeen, Texas.

Here are the final results:

For the men, Japan has won the team open title; while for the women, Russia is victorious at the IPF World Bench Press Championships in Killeen, Texas.

Here are the final results:

A battle was waged at the IPF Bench Worlds on Wednesday. Jill Darling and Teale Adelmann fought it out for the silver medal. With Larisa Kotkova (Russia) taking the Gold with a press of 314 pounds/142.5kgs, only 2.5kgs separated the 2 USA team members.

Below are two links that show many pictures from the prestigious Russian Cup of Titans that took place this weekend in St. Petersburg, Russia:

Gallery 1

Gallery 2

Powerlifting Watch would like to thank its chief reporter in Russia, Nick Zhukov.

The unsanctioned Cup of Titans, which is going on right now in St. Petersburg, Russia; is playing host to nine of the top powerlifters in the world. Up for grabs at the exclusive heavyweight only (101kg+) competition is approximately $43,000 (1,300,000RUB).

Here are the results of the squat as reported to Powerlifting Watch:

The unsanctioned Cup of Titans in St. Petersburg, Russia has concluded. Up for grabs at the exclusive heavyweight only (101kg+) competition was approximately $40,300; with the winner (Malanichev) taking home $11,300.

Here are the final results-as reported to Powerlifting Watch: