EXCLUSIVE
Fedor Emelianenko is feeling content ahead of his final MMA fight.
‘The Last Emperor’ will square off against Ryan Bader, who stopped him in 35 seconds when they first fought four years ago, in a heavyweight title bout at Bellator 290 in Los Angeles on Saturday night.
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Win, lose, or draw, Emelianenko is dead set on bringing his epic MMA career to a close after 23 years, 47 fights, and one of the most impressive win streaks in the history of the sport.
At the peak of his powers, the 46-year-old was a champion with PRIDE and won 27 consecutive fights against elite-level opposition.
Minotauro Nogueira, Mirko Cro Cop, Mark Coleman, Mark Hunt Tim Sylvia, and Andrei Arlovski are just some of the fighters who fell to Emelianenko during his heralded win streak.
Ahead of his final fight, Emlianenko has been enjoying the training process and thinking about some of his career highlights.
He told talkSPORT: “The moments that I remember most were when I become a champion with PRIDE, when I fought Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski, and my fights in Russia.
However, the Russian fighter’s career has not been without strife and he is known by many as the greatest MMA athlete to never compete inside the UFC octagon.
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Emelianenko met with UFC president Dana White several years ago and the two men talked about him joining MMA’s premier promotion but failed to come to terms on a deal.
Despite missing out on potentially lucrative UFC fights, he is happy with how everything worked out and believes he’s had the ‘perfect’ career.
Emelianenko added: “I don’t regret anything. In my long sports career, everything was perfect. Thank God.”
On Wednesday, Bellator president Scott Coker revealed that after he’s squared off against ‘Darth’ for the second time, Emelianneko will be celebrated for his achievements in the sport by a group of his peers.
Josh Barnett, Mark Coleman, Randy Couture, Renzo Gracie, Royce Gracie, Dan Henderson, Matt Hughes, Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, Chuck Liddell, Frank Shamrock, and Chael Sonnen will all be at Bellator 290 this weekend.
The MMA legends will all be in the cage to congratulate Fedor after he’s given his post-fight speech and put his MMA gloves on the floor to signify his retirement from the sport.
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Emelianenko promises that is exactly how he will go out as he’s not interested in making a comeback or crossing over into the world of boxing like many former MMA fighters have been doing recently.
He insisted: “I want to retire completely.”
Arguably the best heavyweight fighter ever plans to spend his newfound free time with family but will also remain heavily involved in his chosen sport.
Fedor said: “First of all, it’s the family. My team and the MMA union amateur league that I’m the president of. Also, I’ll still be a student and continue to study.”
Before all of that, Emelianenko has the chance to avenge a loss and become a champion after earning another title shot with back-to-back knockout wins over Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson and Timothy Johnson.
He’s feeling confident about his chances of causing an upset but also at ease about his combat sports legacy and will seemingly walk away from MMA a happy man no matter what happens this weekend.
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Emelianenko concluded: “What’s going to happen, is going to happen. I don’t really think about if anything didn’t go my way last time. Whatever will happen, will happen.
“I did my homework. So, hopefully, this time it is going to be different.”
Bader has made two defences of his heavyweight title since beating Fedor in 2019 but has suffered two knockout defeats at light-heavyweight in recent years.
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The 39-year-old is also approaching the end of his MMA career which started in 2007 and has included matchups with legends such as Jon Jones, Rashad Evans, Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson, and Lyoto Machida.
He’ll be looking to spoil Emelianenko’s retirement party by getting another big win on his record tomorrow night.