The final fight for Fedor Emelianenko is coming closer, as the Russian MMA legend has one bout left in his Bellator contract and The Last Emperor wants to leave the stage as a promotion’s heavyweight champion.
In an interview with MMA Junkie, Scott Coker admitted that he’s willing to fulfil Emelianenko’s wish, but there are some conditions to be met. As for now, Coker is in process of planning and summer event to be held in Moscow, which will be Emelianenko’s farewell to MMA. The Russian fighter insisted to have a rematch with the reigning Bellator heavyweight champion, Ryan Bader. To make it happen Bader has to defeat Emelianenko’s teammate Valentin Moldavsky in their upcoming unification bout at Bellator 273 on January 29th.
Coker stated that Fedor himself said that if Bader beats Moldavsky he wants to fight him next. The Bellator president is willing to talk about this bout amongst other possible matchups in the beginning of January with a final decision to be made after the Bader – Moldavsky fight and both sides have agreed to that.
Emelianenko fought Bader at Bellator 214 in January 2019 with the championship belt being up for grabs. The fight ended with a 35 second TKO for Bader, who won the belt and World Heavyweight Grand Prix. It was a rare case of Emelianenko losing in a tournament format and it looks like he wants to get a rematch. The course of his fighting career shows that the Last Emperor makes good in second meetings so it would deliver a climactic end to his last fight.
But as it was mentioned earlier, the fate of a potential rematch depends on the result between Bader and Moldavsky. However, Coker promises that even if Emelianenko’s protégé should win, the Russian legend still should get an opponent who will guarantee a retirement fight of monumental proportions. Only time will tell if Coker is good on his promise, as MMA fans around the world are expecting Junior dos Santos, Allistair Overeem, or Josh Barnett amongst other recognizable names to serve as former PRIDE FC champion’s opponent in his retirement bout.
According to Coker Bellator is going to do something really big in Russia, a true sendoff worthy of the MMA royalty.
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