The idea of ​​a farewell fight for the legendary Fedor Emelianenko has been brewing for several years, but now the perfect time has come for him: under a contract with Bellator, the Last Emperor has one fight left, and promotion president Scott Cocker said last summer that Fedor wants to make this fight his farewell.

Emelianenko called the American Ryan Bader the ideal opponent for his last fight, to whom he lost by knockout in 2019. However, Bellator is hatching a completely different plan: Cocker wants to bring two MMA icons together in the octagon!

Fedor should agree to a fight with the Spider! Nobody wants him to lose in a farewell fight…

“Best Fighter vs Second Best”

The last fight of the MMA legend is a grandiose event, so Bellator wants to give Emelianenko a fighter with a big name, who has also long passed his peak. The choice of veteran legends is actually not that great. They want to put the former dominant UFC champion Anderson Silva, known by the nickname Spider, against Fedor.

Anderson Silva / Photo: © Josh Hedges / Contributor / UFC / Gettyimages.com

– We offered Anderson a fight according to the rules of MMA against Fedor. We haven’t discussed it seriously yet, but we contacted him to see if he had any interest. I wanted to know what Silva thinks about it. At the time, he wanted to focus entirely on boxing. Let’s see how far he can go. We could do this fight in Japan or Madison Square Garden in New York.

Let’s do it, organize a grand event! The best fighter will meet in the cage against the second best. To be honest, it will be difficult to agree on a weight category, but first you need to start a dialogue, and then we’ll see. Anderson and I had a rather short conversation – a quick question and a quick answer, but I think we should return to discussing it, ”Coker said in an interview with journalist Ariel Helwani.

Ideal for Fedor

Recently, Emelianenko has repeatedly stated that in his farewell fight he wants to get even with Ryan Bader. In 2019, in the finals of the Heavyweight Grand Prix, the American knocked down the Last Emperor already at the 35th second of the first round: he hit the jaw with an accurate left hook, and then finished off on the canvas.

After this defeat, Fedor won two victories: in Japan, he defeated the famous, but in terrible shape, Rampage Jackson, and then beautifully knocked out the strong Timothy Johnson at a tournament in Moscow. Such results certainly show that even at the age of 45, a Russian is able to fight at a high level. However, choosing a younger and more competitive Bader as an opponent for a farewell fight is an unreasonably bold undertaking.

Undoubtedly, Fedor still feels strong and confident in himself, but he has long proved everything to everyone – there is no point in taking risks. This is what Bellator CEO Scott Cocker probably understands. His idea to offer the 47-year-old Silva a fight with Fedor is quite logical: the fight between two MMA legends, who at their peak were not inferior in battles for many years and owned the belts of the main promotions, will attract the maximum interest of fans around the world.

The legendary Brazilian fighter Anderson Silva, who returned after a long downtime associated with a terrible shin injury, defeated American Nick Diaz in five rounds. / Photo: © Getty Images

The only stumbling block may be the weight category, which Cocker emphasized. Spider never competed in heavyweight, most of his career he fought in the middle, but sometimes went to light heavyweights. However, Fedor himself has always been a “baby” among heavyweights, most often showing a little more than a hundred kilograms on the scales. Perhaps Silva will even like the idea of ​​u200bu200bnot limiting oneself in nutrition at all.

The fight with Silva is ideal for the Last Emperor by all criteria, especially in the context of a farewell duel. It remains only to wait for the decision of the Spider and hope that Fedor will not insist on a tough fight with Bader.