The MMA Hour With Fedor Emelianenko, Gian Villante, John Cholish in Studio

[Kemal]

Monday's episode of The MMA Hour will be a can't-miss show, as we will welcome three fighters competing on the upcoming Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Silva card in studio.

* Fedor Emelianenko will make his first appearance on the show to discuss his upcoming fight against Antonio Silva.

* Heavyweight Grand Prix reserve fighter Gian Villante will talk about his fight against Chadd Griggs.

* Rising star John Cholish will preview his fight against Marc Stevens and discuss juggling life as a fighter and life on Wall Street.

* Plus, Matt Mitrione will stop by to deliver his popular "Mitrione Minute."

And of course, we'll be taking your calls. Give us a shout at: 212-254-0193 or 212-254-0237.

Watch the show live below beginning at A SPECIAL TIME: 2 PM ET / 11 AM PT. Download previous episodes of The MMA Hour on iTunes here.

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[Devilprince]

Hoe laat begint het??

[Kemal]

volgens mij om 20.00 uur..

[Kemal]

Nu LIVE te zien !!

[Pahlavan]

fedor zit nu in de studio mensen!

[Kemal]

mooi om te zien he, hij is echt heel rustig en dat vrouwtje maar schrijven als een dolle..

[Kemal]

hahaha hoe kan Alistair 20 kg aankomen in een korte periode...
Volgens mij heeft die vertaalster geen enkel idee dat het gefilmd wordt..

wuahaha hoe heet de ufc hw champ..

[Kemal]

Als ik em zo zie zitten vraag ik me echt af of Fedor weleens echt uit zn dak gaat..

[Kemal]

waarschijnlijk zit vadim ook in de studio want als de vragen iets te moeilijk worden kijkt de vertaalster steeds naar rechts of ze wel kan en mag antwoorden..

[Kemal]

Nou misschien het laatste jaar dat we Fedor kunnen bewonderen...

[Kemal]

Fedor Emelianenko Voices Questions About Overeem's Weight Gain

Fedor Emelianenko insisted he wasn't "insinuating anything" on Monday's edition of The MMA Hour, but at the same time, even he seems curious as to how Strikeforce heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem managed to pack on so much muscle in the last few years.

"Alistair Overeem is a great fighter," Emelianenko told MMA Fighting's Ariel Helwani via a translator. "He is very strong and is a very serious fighter. Lately he has won a K-1 tournament, as well. The only question I have [is] how he managed to gain 20 kilos of weight in such a short period of time. But frankly speaking I don't care, if he passes [the] drug tests successfully."

Of course, one of the questions raised by Emelianenko's management at M-1 Global recently was exactly what form those drug tests might take.

With Overeem's rapid weight gain, speculation has run rampant as to what might have been fueling his sudden increase in muscle mass. M-1's Vadim Finkelchtein threw more fuel on that fire by publicly calling for Strikeforce to conduct 'strict drug-testing' for the tournament, saying he wanted to make sure that Emelianenko's opponents were "professional fighters, not chemists."

Though Emelianenko pointed out that the Olympic-style drug-testing request was Finkelchtein's idea and not his, he said he supports measures to make the competition as fair as possible.

"I completely agree with Vadim regarding the idea that all the fights have to be very honest, and all the sportsmen have to be clean and they have to work under equal conditions," said Emelianenko. "It's not a secret nowadays that a lot of sportsmen use drugs trying to increase their strength, their speed. I think the fight has to be honest."

As for the tournament itself, which kicks off this weekend in New Jersey with Emelianenko taking on Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva in the first round, the Russian said he was a fan of the format, and predicted it will boost Strikeforce's profile among MMA fans.

"I like tournaments and I participated in such tournaments already. They're very interesting because with every fight only the strongest fighters stay. That's very exciting. ...I think Strikeforce will become even more popular because of that tournament, because they managed to get together very good fighters, very strong fighters, very spectacular, very interesting [fighters]."