October - 2015
SCRAPP! FIGHT MAGAZINE
18
IN SIGNING WITH PRIDE 2.0,
FEDOR REMAINS AN ENIGMA
Article By: Jay Anderson
Cover Photo Credit Provided By Bellator MMA
For weeks, the MMA world
was abuzz: the greatest heavy-
weight fighter of all time, if
not the greatest fighter of all
time, period, was to return.
Fedor Emelianenko, otherwise
known as “The Last Emperor,”
was returning to the sport after
three years of retirement. At
long last, thought fight fans,
we would see Fedor fight the
best fighters in the UFC. Per-
haps he’d work to get revenge
against current UFC heavy-
weight champion Fabricio
Werdum, the first man to beat
The Last Emperor in a decade.
Or perhaps he would sign with
Bellator MMA, and take some
freakshow fights against the
likes of Bobbly Lashley and
Kimbo Slice. While the sporting
merit of such bouts would be
questioned, the entertainment
value would not.
What no one expected was
for Fedor Emelianenko to sign
with an upstart Japanese MMA
promotion led by the man who
ran Pride — Nobuyuki Sakaki-
bara, the President of Dream
Stage Entertainment, also be-
hind Dream. Pride was the big-
gest MMA outfit in the world
at its peak, before allegations
of links to the Japanese mafia
led to its downfall and even-
tual purchase by the UFC.
Fedor was its biggest star, a
household name for fight fans
around the world. So it makes
sense that he wished to return
to work for the man who gave
him his big break.
His motivations beyond that,
however, are muddled. When
asked about his return, on a
Bellator show, no less (the pro-
motion will do some form of
co-promotion with Pride 2.0
— which is clearly not the new
promotion’s name — if only
because it will air on Spike TV,
Bellator’s current home), Eme-
lianenko claimed he was com-
ing back because he was a
fighter. No more, no less.
Yet should a fighter not want
to face the best? The best is
not an unnamed opponent in
an upstart MMA outfit. The
best is, well, the best.
Still, aside from being a fighter,
Fedor has always been a busi-
nessman. While there was no
demand of co-promotion with
Russia’s M-1 this time around
as far as negotiations with
Emelianenko were concerned,
it was clear he wouldn’t set-
tle for a basic UFC contract
(something Andrei Arlovski
and Mirko Cro-Cop, two of the
biggest names still active from
Fedor’s prime, were willing to
do). While the heavyweight
(Dave Mandel/Sherdog)
