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Despite the success of fighters like Cain Velasquez, Daniel Cormier and Stipe Miocic, Fedor Emelianenko is still generally considered the greatest heavyweight in MMA history. However, his recent comebacks are doing more harm than good to his legacy.
It’s now been announced that Fedor Emelianenko is expected to return to Bellator on October 23 in Moscow, to face an opponent to be determined.
But should Fedor Emelianenko really be entering the cage again? The honest answer is certainly not. With that in mind, here are three reasons why Fedor Emelianenko’s latest comeback to MMA is a terrible idea.
#1 Fedor Emelianenko’s previous comeback in Bellator didn’t exactly go well and damaged his legacy
Fedor Emelianenko largely built his reputation as MMA’s greatest heavyweight in PRIDE. 'The Last Emperor' came into the promotion with a 10-1 record, and then went on a ridiculous run of 17 fights without losing, cementing himself as the sport’s best fighter.
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Even when PRIDE closed shop in 2007, Fedor Emelianenko continued to win and enhance his reputation, as he beat former UFC champions Andrei Arlovski and Tim Sylvia.
However, by 2010, as he reached his mid 30’s, Fedor’s form fell off a cliff. He lost three consecutive fights in Strikeforce, and after picking up a trio of wins over largely overmatched opponents, decided to retire in 2012. It was the right decision; nobody was going to hold those three losses against him, and it felt like he’d got out at the right time.
But in December 2015, the Last Emperor returned to action, and after picking up two wins on the regional circuit, signed with Bellator MMA. The move turned out to be a huge mistake. Fedor’s run with Bellator, which seemed to have ended in December 2019, was an embarrassing disaster.
Sure, he beat Frank Mir, Chael Sonnen and Rampage Jackson, but all three fights were sloppy, and his losses to Matt Mitrione and Ryan Bader were nothing short of awful. The run damaged his legacy far more than his Strikeforce losses had.
That’s why his planned comeback for this year is a terrible idea. Fedor looked miles over the hill when he debuted in Bellator, and that’s now four years ago.
While some fans would probably suggest Fedor’s legacy is intact thanks to his incredible wins over a decade ago, it’s hard to dispute that more losses would harm his reputation. Just look at Anderson Silva, for instance, or in boxing, Roy Jones Jr. or Mike Tyson.
Basically, Fedor Emelianenko has nothing more to prove – meaning he should stay well away from the Bellator cage.
#2 Fedor Emelianenko is a 44-year-old man who was hospitalised with COVID-19 just months ago
Every athlete ages differently, and MMA is no exception in that sense. You could argue, for instance, that Randy Couture peaked in his early 40’s. Renan Barao, meanwhile, looked utterly finished before he was even 30.
The heavyweight division does tend to be more kind to older fighters, with aging athletes still being able to succeed – probably because speed isn’t quite as important for them. However, it’s fair to say that at 44 years old, Fedor Emelianenko is a fighter who is now far past his physical prime.
'The Last Emperor' arguably peaked in PRIDE’s later days, when he was in his late 20’s and heading into his early 30’s. But by the time he’d turned 34 in 2010, he looked way past his sell-by date and fell to the first three losses of his career since 2000. And in his last fight in Bellator, at the age of 43, the Russian essentially looked like an old man inside the cage, with the years of damage having clearly caught up with him.
Things have gotten even worse for him since then. January saw Fedor test positive for COVID-19, and unlike some of MMA’s other athletes, the virus landed him in hospital.
Although he’s apparently recovered now, it’s a well-known fact that COVID-19 can do damage to its victim long after they’ve shaken it off initially, particularly people who are middle-aged like Fedor.
So should a 44-year-old man who may not have fully recovered from being hospitalized with COVID-19 really be stepping back into Bellator’s cage, even if that man is Fedor Emelianenko? The answer is quite clearly no.
#3 Fedor Emelianenko’s potential opponents are extremely dangerous
If Bellator were willing to hand Fedor Emelianenko a softball opponent for his return in October, then perhaps his comeback would be a little more palatable. However, despite his fading skills, 'The Last Emperor' is still a huge name in the world of MMA, and his return to Bellator’s cage may well end up acting as the main event for what will be the promotion’s first show in Russia.
That means that a big-name opponent will be needed, and so unsurprisingly, some familiar names have already been mooted for the fight. Those names include former UFC heavyweight champions Junior dos Santos and Josh Barnett, as well as Alistair Overeem, one of the most decorated fighters in MMA history.
Admittedly, all three fighters are probably past their best at this point. Barnett has not fought since his 2016 win over Andrei Arlovski, while both Overeem and dos Santos were cut from the UFC following knockout losses in recent months. However, the latter two fighters in particular are still massively dangerous, and more to the point, they don’t look anywhere near as past their primes as Fedor Emelianenko.
Had Overeem beaten Alexander Volkov earlier this year, for instance, he would almost definitely have been seen as a viable contender for the UFC heavyweight title.
So should the 44-year old Fedor Emelianenko really be stepping into the cage against an opponent of this caliber? In his prime he may have beaten any of the three. But in 2021, it feels like a bad idea all round.
