Fedor Emelianenko Never Considered Himself The G.O.A.T.

It’s going to anger a dwindling-but-still-present subsect of the Internet, but all-time heavyweight legend Fedor Emelianenko just doesn’t consider himself the greatest of all-time. That’s what the former Pride FC champion told Ariel Helwani during an appearance on The MMA Hour yesterday heading into his bout with Matt Mitrione in the co-main event of this weekend’s (Sat., […]

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It’s going to anger a dwindling-but-still-present subsect of the Internet, but all-time heavyweight legend Fedor Emelianenko just doesn’t consider himself the greatest of all-time.

That’s what the former Pride FC champion told Ariel Helwani during an appearance on The MMA Hour yesterday heading into his bout with Matt Mitrione in the co-main event of this weekend’s (Sat., June 24, 2017) Bellator 24 from Madison Square Garden in New York, NY:

“I never considered myself to be the best one. A fighter can lose at any moment. And there are some fighters that, for example, are defending on some position that will be better than me in some technique.”

“The Last Emperor” built a glowing resume on the heels of an unprecedented 29-fight unbeaten streak spanning from 2000-20009, with wins over men considered to be the best heavyweights in MMA at the time in former Pride and UFC champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Pride Grand Prix winner Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic. So while he called each bout interesting, his two most famous rivalries still stand out in his mind:

“All the fights were interesting for some particular reason, and I could find something in each fight,” he said, “But maybe one fight that I can differentiate, it would be the first fight with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. And the fight with Mirko Cro Cop.”

But while he obviously beat the best in the world during his time as Pride champion, Emelianenko’s legacy took a hit when he denied a chance to continue fighting the world’s best in the UFC when Pride was dissolved, accepting an offer from Scott Coker’s Strikeforce at the time. There, Fedor would suffer consecutive defeats to Fabricio Werdum, Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, and Dan Henderson, who, despite being one of the sport’s greats himself, often fought at middleweight throughout his career.

From there Emelianenko went back to his native Russia and continued his trend of not caring about any maintaining level of legitimate world-class competition, beating Jeff Monson, Satoshi Ishii, and a long-past-prime Pedro Rizzo before he retired in June 2012.

He recently came back to the cage, but many hardcore fans his legacy was only further sullied when he faced unknown inexperienced kickboxer Jaideep Singh in his first fight before winning an incredibly controversial decision over UFC light heavyweight castoff Fabio Maldonado last summer, where it appeared Emelianenko was knocked out in the first round.

That’s left Emelianenko’s spot in MMA history as an uncertain and polarizing one, and much of that sits on the fact he and his M-1 Global management team were never able to come to terms with the UFC. He described why those now-infamous talks never offered a positive result, perhaps the main root cause why many are softening on their stance he’s the greatest of all-time :

“We did review the opportunity to fight in the UFC. If the UFC wanted me to get in, we could have,” he said. “We didn’t come to the agreement. “It is very difficult to say, you know,” he said. “It was always something that wouldn’t work out, and it would go back and forth. If, for example, speaking about Scott Coker, we met together and we discussed a lot of issues. We negotiated, we agreed, and he sent me the contract. Everything was exactly [as stated], and the contract was signed. With the UFC always something would [pop up].”

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Bellator 124 GIFs: Emanuel Newton’s Spinning Backfist, Liam McGeary’s Inverted Triangle

Emanuel Newton ended Bellator 124 on a satisfying note this evening, with a smooth-as-butter spinning backfist knockout of “challenger” Joey Beltran. This is the second spinning backfist KO that Newton has scored under the Bellator banner; he caught King Mo with the same strike at Bellator 90 last February. Watch the GIF of Newton’s latest masterpiece above, and click here for a slo-mo alternate angle, all via Zombie Prophet.

After the jump: Liam McGeary submits Kelly Anundson with an inverted triangle to win the Season Eleven Light Heavyweight tournament, and Ryan Couture chokes out Tom Bagnasco.

Emanuel Newton ended Bellator 124 on a satisfying note this evening, with a smooth-as-butter spinning backfist knockout of “challenger” Joey Beltran. This is the second spinning backfist KO that Newton has scored under the Bellator banner; he caught King Mo with the same strike at Bellator 90 last February. Watch the GIF of Newton’s latest masterpiece above, and click here for a slo-mo alternate angle, all via Zombie Prophet.

After the jump: Liam McGeary submits Kelly Anundson with an inverted triangle to win the Season Eleven Light Heavyweight tournament, and Ryan Couture chokes out Tom Bagnasco.

Bellator 124 Live Blog: Main Card Results and Commentary

Bellator 124 is here, and while it’s not quite Bellator 123 in term of star power, it’s still certainly worth watching.

On the main card we’ve got Ryan Couture meeting Tom Bagnasco, a late replacement. Then there’s L.C. Davis vs. Zeilton Rodrigues. The highly touted Liam McGeary faces Kelly Anundson in the co-main event. The main event is a peculiar booking: Emanuel Newton vs. Joey Beltran for the Bellator light heavyweight title.

Please stand by…

Bellator 124 is here, and while it’s not quite Bellator 123 in term of star power, it’s still certainly worth watching.

On the main card we’ve got Ryan Couture meeting Tom Bagnasco, a late replacement. Then there’s L.C. Davis vs. Zeilton Rodrigues. The highly touted Liam McGeary faces Kelly Anundson in the co-main event. The main event is a peculiar booking: Emanuel Newton vs. Joey Beltran for the Bellator light heavyweight title.

Please stand by…

Ryan Couture vs. Tom Bagnasco

L.C. Davis vs. Zeilton Rodrigues

Liam McGeary vs. Kelly Anundson

Emanuel Newton vs. Joey Beltran

Joey Beltran Has Earned a Light Heavyweight Title Shot Against Emanuel Newton, And We’re Not Sure How


(“Your jaw is fine, Joey, but for the love of God, keep him away from your privates!” via Spike)

Former UFC slugger Joey “The Mexicutioner” Beltran has fallen on some hard times, y’all. While he’s never been what you would call a world-beater, his past five fights have resulted in two decision losses, one knockout loss, a win overturned due to a post-fight failed drug test, and a submission win over a 43-year-old and already retired Vladimir Matyushenko at Bellator 116. A gutsy, take-no-prisoners kind of fighter Beltran may be, but its safe to say that “The Mexicutioner” isn’t exactly next in line for a shot at the title, even in Bellator’s ultra-shallow light heavyweight division.

Oh, MMA, just when I thought I had you figured out!


(“Your jaw is fine, Joey, but for the love of God, keep him away from your privates!” via Spike)

Former UFC slugger Joey “The Mexicutioner” Beltran has fallen on some hard times, y’all. While he’s never been what you would call a world-beater, his past five fights have resulted in two decision losses, one knockout loss, a win overturned due to a post-fight failed drug test, and a submission win over a 43-year-old and already retired Vladimir Matyushenko at Bellator 116. A gutsy, take-no-prisoners kind of fighter Beltran may be, but its safe to say that “The Mexicutioner” isn’t exactly next in line for a shot at the title, even in Bellator’s ultra-shallow light heavyweight division.

Oh, MMA, just when I thought I had you figured out!

Maybe it’s just me, but this fight seems more like something Bjorn Rebney would pull, not his excellence Scott Coker. It’s about as throwaway a title fight as we’ve seen in recent memory, and could only have been booked as a sacrifice to the MMA Gods. That being said, it looks like this year’s Harvest will be even better than last year’s.

I guess the biggest question to come out of this booking is that of Rampage Jackson, who stopped Beltran, then Christian M’Pumbu, then decisioned Kingo Mo to technically earn the next title shot. Has Jackson already gotten cold feet in regards to his Bellator contract? DETAILS AT 11.

Bellator 124 goes down from Michigan’s Compuware Arena on Friday, September 12.

J. Jones