Fedor Emelianenko details disastrous fight camp for retirement fight at Bellator 290: “Everything bad that could happen, happened”

For Fedor Emelianenko, it’s out of sight, out of mind when it comes to the final bout of his pro MMA career.

Emelianenko had a decorated MMA career that saw him win championship gold under the PRIDE FC banner. While many argue “The Last Emperor’s” best days were behind him coming out of the sensational 2009 KO win over Brett Rogers, Emelianenko kept pushing forward. He had nice surges after his Strikeforce run ended in a string of losses. Ultimately, his career ended in a first-round TKO loss to Ryan Bader at Bellator 290 earlier this year.

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Fedor Emelianenko Reflects On Poor Fight Camp

Ahead of Bellator 290, Fedor Emelianenko knew he wasn’t training under ideal circumstances. During an appearance on MMAFighting.com‘s “The MMA Hour,” Emelianenko explained to Ariel Helwani why he didn’t pull out of the fight.

“I didn’t really think much about that fight,” Emelianenko said. “The camp itself went absolutely wrong. Everything bad that could happen, happened. Back then I just wanted to get done with it since it was my last fight on the contract. Basically, that was it.

“As I mentioned, everything went wrong. The pandemic part — the last fight was supposed to happen before the pandemic and due to the pandemic they kept changing times, they weren’t sure where the fight was going to be happening, and during that time I wasn’t fighting and I got some injuries here and there. So everything went wrong but I just wanted to get done with it, so that’s why I didn’t postpone the fight.”

Emelianenko ended his pro MMA career with a record of 40-7, 1 NC. While he never competed under the UFC banner, “The Last Emperor” is widely regarded as one of the best, if not, the best heavyweight to ever enter pro MMA competition. Emelianenko may not be totally done with combat sports just yet. He recently expressed interest in a boxing match with the legendary Mike Tyson.