Fedor Emelianenko News

Chris Taylor - April 28, 2018

Bellator 198 Results: Fedor Emelianenko KO’s Frank Mir A highly anticipated heavyweight fight between former UFC champion Frank Mir and former PRIDE champion Fedor Emelianenko served as the headliner of tonight’s Bellator 198 event.

Drake Riggs - March 26, 2018

One of the more underrated light heavyweight competitors of the last decade has been the winner of The Ultimate Fighter season 8 and current Bellator 205-pound champion, Ryan ‘Darth’ Bader. Bader has fought practically his entire MMA career in the UFC but has recently ventured over to Bellator where he’s had nothing but success. That’s not to say he didn’t find success in the UFC either though as he amassed a record of 15-5 with the organization before they decided to let him walk as a free agent. Including Bellator and UFC, better has won nine of his last ten fights.

Tom Taylor - February 1, 2018

While Rory MacDonald spent the last few months preparing for his Bellator welterweight title fight with Douglas Lima (which he won via hard-fought decision), he’s also repeatedly expressed interest in serving as an alternate in Bellator’s Heavyweight Grand Prix. This Heavyweight Grand Prix is populated by far larger men in Matt Mitrione, Roy Nelson, Chael Sonnen, Ryan Bader, Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal, Frank Mir, and Fedor Emelianenko. Despite the fact that entering this tournament would force MacDonald to fight men three weight classes heavier than him, his coach Firas Zahabi is all for it. In fact, he believes MacDonald could thrive in this tournament, even KO the likes of the legend Fedor Emelianenko.

Justin Golightly - January 31, 2018

Former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir finally has a chance to fight one of the very best fighters of all time. Bellator has turned back all the clocks to the ol’ glory days of MMA when the grand prix tournament was still king. They’ve also brought in fighters that have never gotten a chance to face each other in all their years of being in the sport. One fight has already gone by with Chael Sonnen and Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson and they’ll be another one in between Mir fighting Fedor Emelianenko. While many feel he’s passed his prime, Mir assures everyone that Fedor is still Fedor. “Damn, that’s a tough first fight. No joke, Fedor [Emelianenko] is still a phenomenal fighter. I know a lot of people don’t have the eyes that I have and they look at him and go, ‘Well, look at his results.’ And that’s easy to say in our sport, you know. […] Fedor is extremely good. He’s still very quick. He hasn’t lost his power in his punches. Even when he threw the punch against [Matt] Mitrione, Mitrione fell down. Mitrione’s a big kid, y’know, a big guy. I think the difference I try to explain to everybody, [people will say], ‘Well, he used to be unbeatable.’ Yeah, that’s not because he’s gotten worse. Everybody else has gotten better.”

Justin Golightly - November 21, 2017

The bells of nostalgia are calling and have summoned a Bellator heavyweight grand prix that will drop early next year. Among all of the UFC veterans and MMA legends involved, former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir will take on the illustrious Fedor Emelianenko. Despite being far removed from his prime and experiencing some devastating losses, Mir believes Fedor is just as dangerous as ever, it’s just everyone else who has changed. “I think [Fedor Emelianenko]’s still extremely dangerous. He did everything he does normally. You see how fast he threw the right hand on [Matt] Mitrione. The difference is everyone else just have gotten a lot better. If Matt Mitrione would fight 10 years ago in Pride, he would have been one of the best fighters in Pride, if we grab Mitrione we are seeing now and put him back there. Back then guys were either good boxers, wrestlers, jiu jitsu guys. You didn’t have a lot of guys who were good at everything. Which Fedor is. He’s good at everything. And now he has to deal with the fact that everybody now is good at everything.”

Justin Golightly - November 11, 2017

Amidst all the chaos happening in the MMA world right now, Bellator dropped a huge bombshell yesterday that they’ll be putting on a heavyweight grand prix to crown their first heavyweight champion in four years. With all the names participating in the bracket, nearly every match-up is an opportunity to see bouts that we were never able to see due to the fighters not being in the UFC. After two long and storied careers, former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir will meet the legend Fedor Emelianenko in the first round. “I’ll be a part of the eight man tournament that’s been announced by Bellator. I got the word just last night or the night before. I got the call to say, ‘Hey, we need a headshot. We’re putting you in this.’ I obviously agreed. They told me the names that were in there and it looks like I’ll probably be lining up with Fedor [Emelianenko], hopefully in April [2018]. It’s a huge moment. I didn’t even sleep that night thinking about it, running it through my mind, watching videos, already starting to try to pick apart his different traits and gameplans.”

Justin Golightly - November 10, 2017

The grand prix is the pinnacle of combat sport. It is the most difficult tournament format and has the potential to produce absolutely chaotic results. That chaos is why that, for the most part other than Japan’s RIZIN, the creation of an MMA grand prix is few and far between. However, there is a man who has never strayed from that chaos, but welcomes it to put on exciting fights throughout the years. That man is Scott Coker and he is at it again. Bellator will put on a heavyweight grand prix to crown its first heavyweight champion in four years. “This is going to be something that’s iconic for us. Tournaments, traditionally, are kind of the way martial arts contests happen. Now we get to put eight iconic brand names in our sport together over a year, and then whoever wins will be crowned the heavyweight champion. I think there are certain fights that people want to see. Believe me, we’re going to have some amazing match-ups in this tournament. These fights that we’re going to put together are something that the fans want to see. These are iconic names, big brands.” — Scott Coker speaking to MMA Junkie. 

Russell Ess - October 27, 2017

The Emelianenko brothers seem to be quite the opposites and it shows with their current relationship. According to Alexander who spoke with sovsport.ru recently, the two MMA siblings have not spoken to each other in the last 10 years. The tattooed Alexander recently made a return to MMA competition in September following an 18-month prison sentence after being convicted of sexual assault. After a successful return to MMA, Alexander opened up on his relationship with his older brother.

Tom Taylor - July 3, 2017

In late June, in the co-main event of Bellator NYC, Russian heavyweight legend Fedor Emelianenko had his lights shut off by UFC veteran Matt Mitrione. This loss marked the latest hiccup in Emelianenko’s clear decline, and in the opinion of Alistair Overeem, a heavyweight legend of the same vintage as Emelianenko, a signal that it might be time to hang up the gloves. Overeem broke it down in an interview with Fight Hub TV (via MMAFighting.com).

Russell Ess - June 29, 2017

MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko lost in devastating fashion in his Bellator debut over the weekend at Bellator NYC. “The Last Emporer” is often talked about in the debate of the greatest mixed martial arts fighter of all time but was knocked out in the first round against Matt Mitrione on Saturday night at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

Chris Taylor - June 25, 2017

Fedor Emelianenko updates his fighting future following KO loss to Matt Mitrione Mixed martial arts legend Fedor Emelianenko (36-5 MMA) suffered a first-round knockout loss to Matt Mitrione in the co-main event of last night’s Bellator NYC fight card in New York.

Chris Taylor - June 24, 2017

Bellator NYC Results: Fedor Emelianenko vs. Matt Mitrione A heavyweight scrap between mixed martial arts legend Fedor Emelianenko and Matt Mitrione served as the co-main event of tonight’s “Bellator NYC” pay-per-view fight card in New York.

bjpenndotcom - June 8, 2017

https://youtu.be/a5RiQU4f0O8 On this day in MMA history, heavyweight MMA icon Fedor Emelianenko picked up an impressive 1st round submission win over Kazuyuki Fujita after nearly being finished by ‘Ironhead’ in the opening minutes of the fight.

Tom Taylor - March 21, 2017

Yesterday afternoon, we learned that Bellator MMA will be heading to New York City’s hallowed Madison Square Garden on June 24. The ever-growing promotion will do so with Bellator 180, a pay-per-view card that will be headlined by a long-awaited light heavyweight showdown between three-time UFC title challenger Chael Sonnen and Pride legend Wanderlei Silva. Less than 24 hours removed from the announcement of this Bellator 180 main event, the promotion has now announced the card’s co-main event. This co-main event will pit heavyweight legend Fedor Emelianenko – arguably the greatest fighter of all time – against supremely athletic UFC veteran Matt Mitrione.

Tom Taylor - March 20, 2017

Earlier this year, heavyweight legend Fedor Emelianenko was expected to make his first steps into the Bellator MMA cage. His opponent in this Bellator debut was supposed to be dangerous UFC veteran Matt Mitrione. Regrettably, Mitrione was forced out of the fight at the very last minute with a bout of kidney stones. With this disappointing twist of fate, it looked as though Bellator would attempt to rebook a Fedor vs. Mitrione bout for sometime later in the year. Apparently, however, these plans might have been axed.

Russell Ess - February 24, 2017

Now that Fedor Emelianenko is signed to Bellator MMA, there are a quite a few matchups to be had for “The Last Emporer.” With his bout against Matt Mitrione falling out at the last minute with “Meathead” having to be transported to the hospital for issues from kidney stones, it is likely we will see Emelianenko and Mitrione compete on another date. Although nothing has been official for Emelianenko and Mitrione as of yet, current heavyweight TNA professional wrestling champion and Bellator fighter Bobby Lashley says he hopes to get a chance to compete against Fedor.

Tom Taylor - February 19, 2017

If things had gone according to plan, Russian MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko would have made his long awaited debut in the Bellator cage in the main event of Bellator 172 last night. Regrettably, fate got in the way, as his opponent Matt Mitrione was forced out of the fight with kidney stones just hours out from battle. Though Bellator initially made moves to find a replacement for Mitrione – with Chael Sonnen being the leading candidate – they ultimately failed to do so, and Fedor was removed from the card altogether. This ugly twist, of course, was gutting for fans of Fedor and Mitrione alike. It’s also likely to have stung pretty badly for Bellator, who invested plenty of resources into promoting Fedor’s debut in their cage – perhaps most memorably, by creating a video that explores the origins of the Russian’s legendary striped sweater.

Tom Taylor - February 19, 2017

Last night, Bellator MMA returned to San Jose, California with Bellator 172. Until yesterday afternoon, we expected this card to be headlined by a heavyweight scrap between UFC veteran Matt Mitrione and heavyweight legend Fedor Emelianenko. Unfortunately, disaster struck on Saturday afternoon, when Mitrione was forced out of the bout with kidney stones. In the wake of this shakeup, a Patricky Freire vs. Josh Thomson lightweight bout was elevated to the main event, and an opponent-less Fedor Emelianenko was removed from the card. Apparently, however, things very nearly turned out differently. According to a report from the ever-reliable Ariel Helwani, Bellator light heavyweight and cage-side commentator Chael Sonnen offered to step up to replace Mitrione on mere hours’ notice. Surprisingly enough, Bellator was apparently interested in pushing forward with this hastily arranged replacement fight, but unfortunately, they couldn’t make it happen in such a short time.