Mike Chiappetta • E-mail

Fedor Emelianenko will have his next fight against a former UFC heavyweight champion, but it's not Randy Couture, according to a published report.

Sherdog.com reported that the Russian heavyweight, ranked as No. 1 in that weight class by many media outlets, will take on recently departed former two-time champ Tim Sylvia on July 19.

Sherdog spoke with Emelianenko by phone, and he reportedly confirmed the bout.

The 31-year-old Emelianenko is 27-1 with one no contest in his career, and hasn't lost since 2000, when he was ruled the loser because of a first-round cut that prematurely stopped the action.

While he holds wins over current UFC champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and other top-flight competition like Mirko Cro Cop, he has been criticized in recent months for taking fights with undersized Matt Lindland, who usually fights as a middleweight, and Hong-Man Choi, who had only one MMA fight prior to their match.

A win over Sylvia would help give Emelianenko credibility with casual American fans who didn't see his glory days in PRIDE. Sylvia is 24-4 all-time and held the UFC heavyweight belt for almost a year between April 2006 to March 2007 before he was dethroned by Randy Couture.

Couture had been hoping to set up a match with Emelianenko, and the two even met earlier this year and had preliminary discussions about the match, but with the former UFC champ still entangled in legal woes with the UFC, Emelianenko appears to be moving on for now. A win over Sylvia would likely help Emelianenko's drawing power among U.S. fans. His aforementioned win over Lindland drew only 13,000 pay-per-view buys last April.

Sherdog reported that the event may be held at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, the home base of Mark Cuban's HDNet Fights. The Arena's website does not yet list an event for that day.

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