At the dawn of his career in mixed martial arts, Fedor Emelianenko met with the most exotic rivals. In Japan, obsessed with everything unusual, the Last Emperor was offered as rivals both frank freaks and ambals, reminiscent of killing machines.

His next opponent was nothing special, at first glance, did not differ. However, during the title fight with Fedor, the Australian began to do incredible things, surprising even an experienced Russian.

For blatant impudence, the foreigner immediately paid the price.

Call for the second belt of the champion

The first years of his Japanese career in mixed martial arts, Fedor Emelianenko performed in the RINGS promotion, where he received his first professional defeat. But then The Last Emperor began his triumphant journey to the status of an MMA legend. By February 2002, he was already the champion of this organization in open weight and was confidently moving towards winning the title in the overall standings.

He confidently won two fights. First, Fedor defeated Ryushi Yanagisawa by unanimous decision in the quarterfinals, and in the semifinals he dealt with the Englishman Lee Hasdell by choke hold.

In the final fight of the tournament, he was opposed by the Australian Chris Hazeman, who had a wealth of MMA experience behind him, having spent 29 fights at that time. True, there were not so many victories in them – only 18. Subsequently, he even drove into the UFC for one fight, but failed to impress the owners of the promotion.

Chris Hazeman / Photo: © John Gichigi / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

Grabbed by the panties and wanted to take it off

RINGS rules at that time were very different from modern ones. For example, it was impossible to strike with elbows there. The fight was also prematurely stopped if the fighter was knocked down three times. Therefore, the beginning of the duel between Hazeman and Emelianenko may seem very unexpected to modern MMA fans.

Fedor sent the opponent to the floor of the ring with the first blow. Now, in such a situation, in most promotions, Emelianenko would have been allowed to finish off the floating opponent, but in this fight the judge immediately stopped the fight, opening the score. The Australian managed to recover by eight, after which the referee allowed Hazeman to continue the fight.

After the resumption, Chris did not repeat his mistake, trying to transfer the Russian to the ground. But, apparently, he did not know that Emelianenko was good there too. To the credit of the Australian, he managed to create certain problems for the Russian fighter. Chris effectively threw Fedor to the canvas and tried to choke him, but the Last Emperor skillfully evaded his opponent’s attacks, seizing the initiative.

In one of the moments, our fighter threw Hazeman into the ring and was ready to finish him off. In order to somehow stop Emelianenko, the Australian made a very controversial decision – apparently, unable to cope with the panic. He grabbed the Russian’s underpants and began to pull them off him. And it worked! Amazed, Fyodor stopped to fix the only piece of clothing that protected him from being completely naked in public.

A second delay was enough for the opponent to get up, but this did not help him much. Fedor shook his opponent again, and the judge counted Chris another knockdown. The fight resumed after this did not bring anything good for Hazeman. First, Fedor tortured the opponent for a long time with pain attempts, and then sent him to another knockdown, which automatically led to a technical knockout.

Photo: © Tomokazu Tazawa / Stringer / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

After the loss, the Australian immediately left the ring, as if in disgrace. Fedor was awarded championship belts and a wreath of the winner. At the end of the awards ceremony, Emelianenko shared his emotions with reporters:

“Now I feel great joy and satisfaction. Many thanks to the fans, I always felt their support and warmth, how they worried about me and supported me. I will not end my career on this and will continue to please them. I will continue to do martial arts, but I have not yet decided which organization I will join, ”Emelianenko told reporters.

In four months, Fedor will decide on a new promotion. He will move to the then-growing popularity of PRIDE, where he will gain worldwide fame.