(photo Esther Lin for Strikeforce.com)
Despite the talk of Russian fighter Fedor Emelianenko about possible retiring after his second-round TKO loss to Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva in last nights main event of Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Silva, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker doesn’t think it’s the end for “The Last Emporer.”
Speaking at the post-fight press conference Coker noted that fans could see him back in the cage as an alternate for the World Grand Prix tournament, barring the level of his injured right eye, or other possible injuries. At the latest, Coker felt the Russian could be back in sixteen months.
“Fedor always comes back in the third [round], but he didn’t get a chance to today. As far as a retirement, you know how that goes. People get very emotional during a fight and we’ll see. My position is we have many more fights with Fedor, and he’ll honor his contract…”
“Fedor could absolutely be a replacement [in the grand prix]. A committee will decide who will move forward [if a fighter is injured]. I’m not even on that committee. Fedor is definitely a possibility. It could be Fedor that goes in there, depending on what the committee decides. He will be fighting some high-level competition. He’ll have some more fights before the end of the year.”
In another interview, Coker also noted that Fedor could even be matched up against the loser of the quarterfinal bout between Fabricio Werdum vs. Alistair Overeem as another option for the Russian.
Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Silva took place on Feb. 12 at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey with the main event being broadcast on Showtime and the preliminary card on HDNet.
HT: Sherdog.com for the quote.