5 UFC Dream Matches we'll probably never see

#5: Fedor Emelianenko vs. the UFC Heavyweight champion

At one point Fedor vs. Lesnar was the fight on everyone's lips

When the UFC purchased PRIDE back in 2007, the floodgates were opened for a ton of dream matches – stuff like Liddell vs. Silva, Shogun vs. Griffin, Nogueira vs. Mir and so on. The one fight we never got to see though was a match between PRIDE Heavyweight champ Fedor Emelianenko and his equivalent in the UFC.

Everyone knows why – the UFC and Fedor were simply never able to come to terms, be it due to issues surrounding Fedor’s management, the dreaded co-promotion issue, a lack of respect for Fedor on Dana White’s part, and so on. Even as recently as 2015, rumours of a possible deal floated around the internet – until Fedor signed with Bellator instead.

The list of UFC champions that Fedor could’ve faced in a dream match is pretty long, too – Randy Couture, Brock Lesnar, Cain Velasquez, Junior Dos Santos, and so forth. Any of those fights would’ve been fantastic a few years ago. Nowadays though, a fight between current champ Daniel Cormier and Fedor would likely be a sad, one-sided affair.

Father Time waits for no man and unfortunately, he’s more than caught up with Fedor at this point. Realistically, we’re probably over a decade removed from the legendary Russian’s prime. Which means that it’s time to put the idea of a Fedor vs. the UFC champ dream match to bed for good.

It still sounds cool on paper somehow, but it’s a dream match we’re probably never going to see – and for good reason at this point, too.