Fresh from his beat down of his 2nd UFC fighter(Andre Arlovski), Fedor now has to look forward to his 3’rd bout with another former UFC fighter in Josh Barnett.  What the heck is going on here?  Let’s pony up some better competition here.  I think Fedor deserves some better competition while he’s still in his 30’s.  Let’s not wait until he’s in his 40’s to take on UFC newcomer, Brock Lesnar:

Fedor Emelianenko’s reward for beating two former UFC champions in a row is a third one.

Emelianenko, mixed martial arts’ consensus No. 1 heavyweight, according to Bloody Elbow’s compilation of rankings, needed one punch Saturday to end former UFC titlist Andrei Arlovski’s upset bid, in the main event of UFC rival Affliction Entertainment’s “Day of Reckoning” card. Josh Barnett, another former UFC champion, defeated Dutch striker Gilbert Yvel on the undercard.

Affliction matchmaker Tom Atencio has said that the winner of Emelianenko-Arlovski would face the winner of Barnett-Yvel later this year. The two men are friends, and although Barnett has said that won’t keep them from fighting each other, Emelianenko wasn’t ready to consider the problems that Barnett might pose.

“Right now I’m just thinking of him as my friend,” Emelianenko said through an interpreter after the fight against Arlovski. “We’re very close.”

Emelianenko’s overhand right to the jaw knocked out Arlovski with 1:46 remaining in the first round. The punch landed as Arlovski jumped for a flying knee attempt.

Arlovski seemed to getting the better of Emelianenko before the sudden finish. Arlovski fought off Emelianenko’s takedown attempts and connected with several hard strikes. Fight statistician Compustrike indicated that Arlovski landed 18 strikes, twice as many as Emelianenko, who missed on 15 of 24 punches.

The loss halts the winning streak of Arlovski (14-6), who had five consecutive victories going into Saturday. Emelianenko (29-1) has not lost in his last 26 fights, dating to December 2000.

Barnett (24-5) earned his title shot with a dominant victory against Yvel (35-13-1), who tapped as Barnett was hitting him on the mat in the third round.

By Sergio Non, USA TODAY