Fedor Emelianenko’s timing for a comeback couldn’t be better

So, Fedor Emelianenko wants to fight again. Can I get an oh, hells yes. The great Фёдор Влади́мирович Емелья́ненко, yo! By now we should all know that in MMA “retirement” is Latin for “a place to refuel,” but still…freaking Fedor! Do you know what this means? Fedor can now fight against…

Hold up, though, hold up. Before we get too excited, let’s just kick the tires here a bit and thumb through the Carfax, just to…you know, be thorough.

It sounds like a show for The Animal Planet’s gang of gullibles, but there was a time when “The Great Emperor” got pummeled by a Bigfoot in the swamps of New Jersey. You can look it up. It was during the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix four-and-a-half years ago. Antonio Silva looked like a CGI creature next to Emelianenko, but he had a mile of available chin for the Russian to work with. Fedor had been in there against bigger men his whole career. His business was finding every giant’s black spot before they could find his.

Yet when Silva got on top of Fedor in East Rutherford the credits began to roll. Remember that? Silva beat the holy living mystique out of The Greatest Heavyweight of All Time. With every loaf-sized hammerfist that crashed into the Russian’s cranium, with every rude elbow that cracked his temple, everything that happened eight months earlier seemed less and less like a fluke. Fedor had got caught by Fabricio Werdum in his previous fight out in San Jose, his first loss in nearly 10 years. It still felt like an aberration.

Against Silva, he was being busted into a million pieces. I’m just saying, it felt like reality. At the time.

So when he lost to Dan Henderson five months later, the eulogists were already humming along on their keyboards. Henderson was making a cameo appearance at heavyweight, chugging water to make the 206-pound minumum. To get knocked out in that fight was the final shred of evidence needed to make the case — at 34 years old, and now riding a three-fight losing streak, Fedor had ceased being Fedor.

That’s where it felt like it ended.

He did go on to win three fights before retiring, but those were against Jeff Monson, Satoshi Ishii and a well-shot Pedro Rizzo in Russia. Little stocking stuffers to help make it a less-depressing Christmas. Hardly anybody in America paid attention to his swan song fight. The GOAT sort of receded into family life and Moscow politics as MMA fans were left to lament that he never fought in the UFC.

And here we are three years later, with a reminder to never say never.

Because, getting back to the point, what I was trying to say is…Fedor is back! Who will land the greatest heavyweight that ever was, especially now in a day and age when what was has so little to do with what is?

If you think about it, Fedor’s timing to take off his shoes again couldn’t be better — right now in the realm of heavyweights we are willing to believe anything is possible. After Mark Hunt (an inheritance from Pride) made his run, and Ben Rothwell came surging back into relevance, and Andrei Arlovski (!) has emerged once again a heavyweight contender, and Frank Mir has kicked back into fifth, and Werdum, at 38, is now an unstoppable force as the UFC’s champ, well, the idea that Fedor could make some noise again doesn’t sound so far-fetched.

In fact, stick him in that fold on the UFC roster, and possibilities and back stories get a little overwhelming. Who wouldn’t want to see Fedor — and his 19th century priests that double as his cornermen — decked out in a Reebok kit, inside those eight famous cage walls?

There are so many questions to ask. What is Fedor’s ultimate value? Did the time away help him? Has he been training? Did he ever find that sweater that he used to wear all the time (#NeverForget)?

The thing is, as with all the other heavyweight resurrection stories, it’s possible the passage of time has washed away all that writing on the wall. That’s a compelling story on its own. And with Fedor it’s usually complicated. He’s a free agent, but — like before — he’s a free agent with red tape. M-1 Global is riding sidecar with him wherever he ends up, and it was that alliance that hindered him ever appearing in the UFC. Still, right now Fedor’s name can’t be mentioned without the word “sweepstakes” attached to it. And for good reason. A fighter who pops up in the GOAT conversation so frequently making a comeback?

Compelling stuff.

Who will win the sweepstakes? Will it be Bellator? It’s Scott Coker who’s been trotting Fedor out to all of America’s Dave & Busters and events. He and Fedor are friends going back to Japan and Strikeforce. Will it be the WSOF? There’s the huge rematch with Blagoy Ivanov (who beat him in the Sambo Worlds in 2008) just sitting there, waiting for the WSOF hype machine to do its work. Will it be Japan? Promotions are kicking back up over there. Fedor is a deity in Japan. Will it be Russia? M-1 Global is still behind a great many levers.

Or will it be the UFC? For Dana White and Lorenzo Ferittta, Fedor is the white whale. The one they can’t get. He’s the dangling carrot forever out of reach. Last time they tried to get him — to fight Brock Lesnar at Dallas Cowboys Stadium – it fell through when Fedor’s father passed away. Now talks of that same oversized venue (now AT&T Stadium) are getting kicked up again, with Conor McGregor and Jose Aldo headlining. It would need some strong support.

Imagine Fedor fighting Arlovski on that same card. Or fighting Mir, or Hunt (again), or Alistair Overeem, or Hendo, Shogun, Derrick Lewis, or really any sentient thing. Imagine the moment that Fedor finally walks into the Octagon, whether it’s in Dallas or as the UFC makes inroads into Russia. There is no such thing as too late.

And really, that’s forever been the missing part of the Fedor’s story.

So, Fedor Emelianenko wants to fight again. Can I get an oh, hells yes. The great ????? ????????????? ????????????, yo! By now we should all know that in MMA “retirement” is Latin for “a place to refuel,” but still…freaking Fedor! Do you know what this means? Fedor can now fight against…

Hold up, though, hold up. Before we get too excited, let’s just kick the tires here a bit and thumb through the Carfax, just to…you know, be thorough.

It sounds like a show for The Animal Planet’s gang of gullibles, but there was a time when “The Great Emperor” got pummeled by a Bigfoot in the swamps of New Jersey. You can look it up. It was during the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix four-and-a-half years ago. Antonio Silva looked like a CGI creature next to Emelianenko, but he had a mile of available chin for the Russian to work with. Fedor had been in there against bigger men his whole career. His business was finding every giant’s black spot before they could find his.

Yet when Silva got on top of Fedor in East Rutherford the credits began to roll. Remember that? Silva beat the holy living mystique out of The Greatest Heavyweight of All Time. With every loaf-sized hammerfist that crashed into the Russian’s cranium, with every rude elbow that cracked his temple, everything that happened eight months earlier seemed less and less like a fluke. Fedor had got caught by Fabricio Werdum in his previous fight out in San Jose, his first loss in nearly 10 years. It still felt like an aberration.

Against Silva, he was being busted into a million pieces. I’m just saying, it felt like reality. At the time.

So when he lost to Dan Henderson five months later, the eulogists were already humming along on their keyboards. Henderson was making a cameo appearance at heavyweight, chugging water to make the 206-pound minumum. To get knocked out in that fight was the final shred of evidence needed to make the case — at 34 years old, and now riding a three-fight losing streak, Fedor had ceased being Fedor.

That’s where it felt like it ended.

He did go on to win three fights before retiring, but those were against Jeff Monson, Satoshi Ishii and a well-shot Pedro Rizzo in Russia. Little stocking stuffers to help make it a less-depressing Christmas. Hardly anybody in America paid attention to his swan song fight. The GOAT sort of receded into family life and Moscow politics as MMA fans were left to lament that he never fought in the UFC.

And here we are three years later, with a reminder to never say never.

Because, getting back to the point, what I was trying to say is…Fedor is back! Who will land the greatest heavyweight that ever was, especially now in a day and age when what was has so little to do with what is?

If you think about it, Fedor’s timing to take off his shoes again couldn’t be better — right now in the realm of heavyweights we are willing to believe anything is possible. After Mark Hunt (an inheritance from Pride) made his run, and Ben Rothwell came surging back into relevance, and Andrei Arlovski (!) has emerged once again a heavyweight contender, and Frank Mir has kicked back into fifth, and Werdum, at 38, is now an unstoppable force as the UFC’s champ, well, the idea that Fedor could make some noise again doesn’t sound so far-fetched.

In fact, stick him in that fold on the UFC roster, and possibilities and back stories get a little overwhelming. Who wouldn’t want to see Fedor — and his 19th century priests that double as his cornermen — decked out in a Reebok kit, inside those eight famous cage walls?

There are so many questions to ask. What is Fedor’s ultimate value? Did the time away help him? Has he been training? Did he ever find that sweater that he used to wear all the time (#NeverForget)?

The thing is, as with all the other heavyweight resurrection stories, it’s possible the passage of time has washed away all that writing on the wall. That’s a compelling story on its own. And with Fedor it’s usually complicated. He’s a free agent, but — like before — he’s a free agent with red tape. M-1 Global is riding sidecar with him wherever he ends up, and it was that alliance that hindered him ever appearing in the UFC. Still, right now Fedor’s name can’t be mentioned without the word “sweepstakes” attached to it. And for good reason. A fighter who pops up in the GOAT conversation so frequently making a comeback?

Compelling stuff.

Who will win the sweepstakes? Will it be Bellator? It’s Scott Coker who’s been trotting Fedor out to all of America’s Dave & Busters and events. He and Fedor are friends going back to Japan and Strikeforce. Will it be the WSOF? There’s the huge rematch with Blagoy Ivanov (who beat him in the Sambo Worlds in 2008) just sitting there, waiting for the WSOF hype machine to do its work. Will it be Japan? Promotions are kicking back up over there. Fedor is a deity in Japan. Will it be Russia? M-1 Global is still behind a great many levers.

Or will it be the UFC? For Dana White and Lorenzo Ferittta, Fedor is the white whale. The one they can’t get. He’s the dangling carrot forever out of reach. Last time they tried to get him — to fight Brock Lesnar at Dallas Cowboys Stadium – it fell through when Fedor’s father passed away. Now talks of that same oversized venue (now AT&T Stadium) are getting kicked up again, with Conor McGregor and Jose Aldo headlining. It would need some strong support.

Imagine Fedor fighting Arlovski on that same card. Or fighting Mir, or Hunt (again), or Alistair Overeem, or Hendo, Shogun, Derrick Lewis, or really any sentient thing. Imagine the moment that Fedor finally walks into the Octagon, whether it’s in Dallas or as the UFC makes inroads into Russia. There is no such thing as too late.

And really, that’s forever been the missing part of the Fedor’s story.