14 DAY TRIAL // EA Sports announced at E3 that it planned to enter the market for mixed martial arts games with a title for the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, set to arrive in 2010.
The problem was that the Ultimate Fighting Championship and THQ have already published a mixed martial arts game, UFC 2009: Undisputed, which has sold pretty well on the North American market.
Since then, Dana White, the president of the UFC, publicly stated that he planned to ban from fighting in his competitions any and all athletes who would sign an agreement to appear in the EA Sports-made game.
Now, EA Sports has challenged the UFC by announcing that it has signed Russian heavyweight Fedor Emelianenkofor to its upcoming videogame. The fighter is widely seen as being the best in world in his weight category and he specializes in sambo and judo techniques, which have led to him having 30 wins and just one defeat.
EA Sports has also revealed that it has agreements with two other athletes, Gegard Mousasi and Renato Sobral, who are set to take part in a Strikeforce match on August 15.
Mousasi uses techniques from Dutch kickboxing and judo for a 25-2-1 record, while Sobral uses grappling moves to reach a 35-8 record. Presumably, both fighters and Fedor Emelianenko will now be banned from getting into any competitions sponsored by the UFC, although they have all been courted by the organization.
EA Sports is saying that more fighters for the MMA game will be announced as the release date nears. It seems that the possibility of appearing in a videogame and the cash that Electronic Arts is surely putting up prove to a lot of fighters more attractive than the UFC offers, which are limited to appearing in THQ games and taking part in sponsored competitions.