When Bellator announced that Fedor Emelianenko would be returning to fight for the first time since December 2019, we knew that the whole show would be built around him. Not only did he return, but he returned to his native Russia, where he hadn’t fought since 2016. Making the walk for his 47th professional fight, the 45-year-old knocked his opponent out in the first round, looking as good as ever.
Bellator 269 Main Event
Fedor Emelianenko’s opponent on the night was Timothy Johnson. Johnson was 3-1 in his last four, having gone 3-3 for the promotion overall. The #2 ranked Bellator heavyweight stepped into enemy territory knowing that he had to pounce on the Russian before he got going, avoid his legendary power and ultimately try and silence the crowd on his way to victory.
What played out was phenomenal. Fedor did what Fedor does. He landed a counter right, followed by a left hook and a huge looping overhand right that knocked Johnson out cold. It didn’t take any further ground and pound, the Russian legend knew it was done when the shot landed. The crowd went wild, especially when Fedor’s hand was raised.
🐐The Last Emperor scores the KO in Moscow!
What a moment for Fedor, in Bellator’s historic first Russian event.#Bellator269 pic.twitter.com/gZq4pH5bMa
— BellatorMMA (@BellatorMMA) October 23, 2021
After his vintage performance, ‘The Last Emperor’ didn’t seem to be interested in leaving his gloves in the octagon and calling it a day on his career. It would have been the perfect setting for Fedor to retire, in his home country coming off the back of a phenomenal performance. The former PRIDE heavyweight champion and many people’s GOAT, he has nothing left to prove. What’s next for the great Fedor Emelianenko? Who knows, but what we do know is that we’ll all tune in to watch it.
The remainder of the Bellator 269 card
The Bellator 269 card certainly delivered a number of finishes as well as interesting talking points. Four of the six preliminary fights saw finishes, with three knockouts and a submission. The prelims certainly warmed fans up for the main card. Even the fight between Brian Moore and Nikita Mikhailov that went the distance was exciting. Mikhailov dominated the first two rounds but Moore rallied to almost finish it in the final five minutes. Covered in blood having suffered a nasty cut, Moore left it all in there.
The main card saw Usman Nurmagomedov live up to his name with a dominant performance. Having scored a fairly easy takedown, he worked his way to a decisive rear-naked choke submission victory.
Vintage Nurmagomedov.
We are LIVE on @SHOSports with #Bellator269👇https://t.co/TbKTQ7lKsu pic.twitter.com/7BHXMYKUqS
— BellatorMMA (@BellatorMMA) October 23, 2021
We also saw a strange finish to the fight between Said Sowma and Vitaly Minakov. Sowma appeared to be on his way to a surprise, underdog victory when Minakov seemed to dislocate his finger and attempted to snap it back into place. The referee had already called the fight off when Minakov’s trainer put his finger back in place. The Russian wanted to continue, but as the referee had already called the fight off, that was that, Sowma got the win via TKO (injury).
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