When Fedor Emelianenko faces off against Tim Sylvia on July 19th it will be for he mixed martial arts heavyweight championship of the world, it was announced Saturday.
Sylvia-Emelianenko will be the first to award a belt from the World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts, which is seeking to unify the titles to recognize true champions of the sport.
“It’s huge,” said Monte Cox, the Bettendorf-based promoter/agent who heads up Adrenaline and also represents Sylvia. “We desperately need a sanctioning body or organization that’s not biased, an independent organization like boxing has.
“Right now, there are no world champions, in my opinion. There is the UFC champion, there’s an EliteXC champ — those are simply champions of organizations. There is nothing to say that the two best guys in the world fought and this guy is now the world champ. That’s never been done.”
