MMA Spotlight: Fedor Emelianenko

By Anthony “Zute” George

Fedor Emelianenko is a Russian mixed martial artist who sports a career record of 36-4. The Last Emperor makes his Bellator MMA debut June 24th, in the famed Madison Square Garden; Fedor’s first time fighting in New York City. Fedor faces the rugged Matt Mitirone, as part of a star-studded pay per view extravaganza. Any MMA fan worth his salt will be either attending the event, or tuning in on PPV. Fedor is one of those unique fighters, whose storied career is one of legend, but has also been very illusive and confusing to the American audience.

From 2000 to 2007, as Fedor’s legend was growing, save for one fight against Mark Coleman in 2006, Fedor fought all his fights outside of the United States. As a result, it was very difficult to watch Fedor fight live. This did not hurt the popularity of Fedor at all, and the accolades did not suffer either; Fedor was always near the top of the P4P list of MMA fighters. Indeed, everyone knew how good Emelianenko was, besting killers such as Kazuyuki Fujita, Coleman, Antonio Rodrigo Nogeuria, Mirco Cro Crop, Mark Hunt and Kevin Randleman. Fedor could submit you or take you out with strikes. Fedor’s string of dominance came before social media was the giant it is today, however, the buzz for Fedor among American MMA fans was a locomotive.

With that said, there is still something dissatisfying about watching a fight you already knew the outcome of, which was the case for most of Fedor’s fights for this scribe, as well as many other Americans. As with any fighter who appears invincible, the logical question being asked all the time was who could beat Fedor. However, an even more important question was being asked, when will Fedor come to the UFC?

Among those most interested in the answer to this question was UFC champion Randy Couture. Couture was eager to see the UFC sign Fedor. Such a fight of that time would have broken all PPV numbers, and provided Couture with the kind of challenge he felt was lacking in the UFC at the time. To be honest, Couture would have also been the toughest challenge for Fedor. Well, the UFC could not land Fedor, as a result Randy Couture retried; albeit temporarily.

Years later, it looked as if Fedor could be finally be coming to the UFC, only to lose out to Bellator MMA. Dana White likes to downplay it, but failing to sign Fedor to the UFC should be considered one of his biggest failures as UFC President. True, he has many more success, but this is one many UFC fans still smart over. Fedor in the UFC, what if? It was never to be.

The question to ask now is what kind of fighter is Fedor circa 2017? How much does he have left? When Fedor finally became easy access to American viewers, as a Strikeforce competitor, he suffered an ugly stretch of three consecutive loses, Fedor was blown out by Fabricio Werdum, Antonio Silva and Dan Henderson respectivley. All three loses were against top flight competition, true, however, if those fights were your first look at Fedor, you would think his cloak of invincibility was a fluke. I will let you in on a little secret, all claims of invincibly for fighters falls short of reality. Everyone is beatable. After losing to Henderson, the reality for Fedor was whether or not he could win another fight.

Fedor has won five in a row since losing to Hollywood, however, the victories were not against the best of competition and once again took place under obscure circumstances for the American audience; all five fights took place in either Russia or Japan.
Now Fedor returns to the United States in a big way, on the biggest stage. A win over Mitrione will make Fedor a heavy player in Bellator, and be a major boost for that organization. A loss to Mitrione will generate a plethora of questions for Fedor. At the top of the list would involve retirement. At age 40, and after a long and grueling career, what version of Fedor will we see in New York City? Stay tuned.

Win an autographed copy of Mike Tyson’s autobiography “UNDISPUTED TRUTH” by clicking HERE and subscribing to be entered to win this great prize along with any future ones!

[si-contact-form form=’2′]