4 reasons why Fedor Emelianenko could beat Ryan Bader

#4 Fedor is Fedor!

Fedor has upset the odds before, such as during his wild comeback against Kevin Randleman after being dropped on his head

When it comes to this fight, it’s obvious why Ryan Bader is the favourite – he’s pretty much in his prime and hasn’t lost since 2016, while Fedor’s prime probably came at some point between 2005 and 2009, and ever since his return from retirement in 2015, he hasn’t really looked like the same fighter that ran roughshod over the Heavyweight division for years, despite his wins over Frank Mir and Chael Sonnen.

But is that enough reason to count him out of this fight? Certainly not. Fedor is a fighter who made a whole career out of defying all logic inside the ring or cage to write himself into one of the biggest MMA legends of them all.

Remember the time Kazuyuki Fujita hit him so hard in their PRIDE encounter that he was left dancing like a drunken fish? It’s hard to forget – but it’s also hard to forget the fact that Fedor somehow recovered and then choked Fujita out moments later.

The same could be said for the way he submitted Kevin Randleman after being suplexed onto his head, the way he came back to knock out Brett Rogers after being busted wide open, and so on. And most recently, he came back from being knocked down by Frank Mir to TKO the former UFC champ moments later.

Admittedly, most of those fights took place years ago – in Fedor’s prime – but the point still stands. ‘The Last Emperor’ simply isn’t the kind of fighter who will just lay down for the younger fighter. Some fighters simply have an inexplicable kind of magic that surrounds them, and the Russian legend is one of them. And that means you’d have to be insane to count him out against Bader.