But also their own fans. The fact is that fans are used to seeing Fedor in fights with the strongest, and therefore still dreamed of signing him to the UFC.

Singh and Maldonado- obviously not the rivals that the Russian public was waiting for, although the latter also gave Fedor real problems. However, at the age of 40, a fighter may well have other priorities than winning the title of "king of the hill", and he will choose those conditions that are more comfortable for him.

And in general, Fedor has already achieved so much in sports that he, like the hero of the song “Klava, you are not Gagarin”, without exaggeration, everything is possible. For Russian MMA, he became his Gagarin, who brought the sport into space orbit. Without him, there would be no prime-time MMA tournaments, dozens of Russians in the UFC, and growing competition within the country every year. Now Fedor no longer needs to prove anything. He can both end his career and perform for his own pleasure anywhere and with anyone, even if they are freak fights with Bob Sapp. Does it not live up to your expectations? So watch the fights Conor McGregor.

Some sofa-keyboard warriors therefore did not believe in the battle between Emelianenko and Matt Mitrione, an insider about which was leaked to the American media a month ago. Say,

Fedor has already achieved so much in sports that he, like the hero of the song “Klava, you are not Gagarin”, without exaggeration, everything is possible.

Fedor will again choose some kind of bag in Russia or Japan, and will no longer go into a competitive environment. Russian colleagues hastened to refute the information only on the basis that the leadership did not confirm it. Well, until both fighters sign the contract for the fight, it will not be made public, which does not cancel the very fact of negotiations. The presentation of the Last Emperor took place during the Sabbath. Fedor appeared on the platform in the same striped sweater that became a legend for American fans, and to the Era tune that made him the king of PRIDE. The reaction of the American public showed that Fedor is still loved and expected there.

Why

In this case, the choice of Emelianenko is not just explainable, but looks as logical as possible. First, Fedor with the president of the company Scott Cocker have been friends since the days when he headed Strikeforce. Secondly, the era of new stars is now coming to the UFC, which are pulling ever larger contracts from the organization, and therefore Fedor would not have been able to pull out an offer from the new owners comparable to the conditions of the stars of the first magnitude.

Cocker's company does not want to become in its purest form the second division of MMA, but is trying to offer the viewer an alternative product, even if the fights of freaks and veterans from a sports point of view sometimes look not the best way.

For the same reason, negotiations with Georges St-Pierre stalled, and, if not for his remaining contractual obligations, he would have long since become a part of.

Cocker's company does not want to become in its purest form the second division of MMA, but is trying to offer the viewer an alternative product, even if the fights of freaks and veterans from a sports point of view sometimes look not the best way. However, more and more dissatisfied top fighters are choosing . Here and Ben Henderson, and Rory McDonald and Phil Davis, whom no one kicked out of the UFC, and at the time of leaving they were firmly in the top ten. Finally, the heavyweight and light heavyweight divisions are now strong enough to offer the now-age legend some worthy competition.

Why Mitrione

Emelianenko's contract was signed for several fights at once, but already in the first of them he chose one of the best heavyweights of the organization, who today is even higher in the rating than himself. Remember when Fedor went into battle as an underdog. Former player to American football and a UFC veteran today is 38 years old. He won 11 out of 16 professional fights, but they all took place in the fierce competition of the two best American leagues. Mitrion is large, powerful, which has recently caused a lot of problems for Emelianenko, who has lost speed, and at the same time he feels good in the stance.

Potentially, the fight could become a mega fight in the style of fights with Rogers, Henderson and Maldonado with a completely unpredictable outcome, and I would rate the chances in it as 50/50. Mitrione has never defeated top fighters in his career, but he has always been on the watershed line between real tops and those who are on the way, but have not yet deserved to be ranked among the elite. In the case of Fedor, he is able to appreciate the relevance of the legend in modern MMA. If Emelianenko passes it, then there is still gunpowder in the flasks and he is capable of fighting the best.

Mitrion is large, powerful, which has recently caused a lot of problems for Emelianenko, who lost his speed.

The battle will end with a crushing victory for Mitrion, we will have to admit that the time of our Fedor is gone.

Who else

But for now, let's not think about the worst and imagine an option in which Fedor wins or at least has a close fight with the American. In this case, of course, there will be a point in other heavyweight fights. Another UFC veteran comes to mind first. Sheikha of the Congo, who at 41 is still fine and has won seven of his nine fights. There is still dangerous because of his youth Tony Johnson who signed the leave Alexander Volkov, and a British former strongman Oli Thompson. However, there is an option with subtle trolling. For example, show Sergei Kharitonov, who scoffed a lot about the fight between Fedor and Maldonado, how it was necessary to act with Javi Ayala.

The circle of potential rivals is not limited to one heavy division for Fedor. His small weight for this category (about 105 kg) is quite comparable with the mass of light heavyweights without weight cut, and therefore in potential fights with MMA legends of this category Quinton Jackson, Tito Ortiz and Chael Sonnen Fedor would not look bigger than his opponents. All of them, like Fedor, belong to the so-called veteran category, but still have armies of fans and are popular enough in the US to create a massive blockbuster. Therefore, we can say with confidence that until the end of Emelianenko's career, he is provided with rivals.

The signing of a contract with Fedor Emelianenko was announced at the Bellator 165 tournament. According to announcer Sean Grande, who announced the agreement, the contract with Emelianenko was signed for several fights, but he did not disclose the exact number of fights prescribed in the contract between the parties. As the Russian himself did not declassify this.

“I have known Scott Cocker for a long time and Bellator in general. I have been a guest several times. Here one of best fighters. Grateful for the opportunity to speak here. The contract between us is concluded for several fights. And I will try my best, ”Emelianenko said at a press conference dedicated to the signing of the agreement.

Emelianenko, 40, is considered one of the greatest fighters in MMA history. Fedor became the PRIDE champion during the heyday of the Japanese promotion, defeating almost all the top opponents of that time - Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Mirko Filippovich, Mark Hunt, Kevin Randleman, Mark Coleman and many others.

In the list of Bellator fighters, he became the fifth representative of Russia. In addition to Fedor, Sergey Kharitonov, Vitaly Minakov, Alexander Shlemenko and Andrey Koreshkov are currently performing under the auspices of this organization.

• sherdog.com

Emelianenko Sr. will hold his first fight in the United States since 2011 as part of the Bellator 172 tournament, which will be held on February 18 in San Jose. The Last Emperor will face former UFC fighter 38-year-old Matt Mitrione.

The former NFL (American Football League) player played in the UFC from 2009 to 2016, from where he was fired after losing to Travis Brown and Ben Rothwell. After moving to Bellator, Mitrione scored two stoppage victories in June and July. At the moment, the American has 11 triumphs with 5 defeats in his career. He is in the top 20 heavyweight fighters.

“Everyone knows who he is. It is a great honor for me to meet him. Welcome to the family, Fedor! I treat him with great respect. An opportunity like this comes once in a lifetime. We'll put on a good show," Carwin said after the fight was officially announced.

Emelianenko, after resuming his career, also won two victories. In the first fight after a three-year pause in his career, the Russian defeated Jaideep Singh from India, and then defeated former UFC light heavyweight Brazilian Fabio Maldonado on points.

A few weeks ago, Fedor Emelianenko announced on his Instagram account that next fight, but the opponent was not determined. Earlier, the media reported on a possible meeting of Emelianenko with another former champion UFC heavyweight champion Shane Carwin, who resumed his career after a five-year hiatus. The 41-year-old American, who has 12 wins and two losses, signed a contract with the Japanese promotion Rizin, in which Fedor also performed.

In his Twitter microblog, Karvin said that he had agreed to a meeting with Emelianenko, but the camp of the Russian fighter refused.

“I agreed to fight Fedor,” wrote Karvin. He probably won't fight again. I met with Rizin representatives and they have a great offer but nothing signed yet,” he wrote.

Carvin's debut is scheduled for December 29 as part of the New Year's show. On November 15, his former Strikeforce opponent Antonio Silva also announced his desire to fight Fedor. In 2011, Silva defeated the Russian fighter, but since then his career has gone downhill. The Brazilian, after defeating Fedor, had 13 fights, of which he won only three. In his last fight On November 18 in Yekaterinburg, 37-year-old Silva lost on points to Russian heavyweight Ivan Shtyrkov.

As for the fight Emelianenko - Mitrion, negotiations about it began immediately after the failure of the deal for the fight with Karvin at the end of October.

Ivan Slavinsky

Decided to continue his career in the American promotion Bellator.

On Sunday it became known that the famous Russian MMA fighter Fedor Emelianenko signed a contract with the promotional company Bellator. His fight with Matt Mitrione will be held February 18, 2017 in San Jose. The fact that Emelianenko ended up in Bellator, and not, say, in the UFC, is not too surprising. Fedor is already 40 years old, and at such a veteran age it is extremely difficult to sign a contract with the UFC: the organization has recently been following a policy of “rejuvenating” fighters. The same 38-year-old Matt Mitrione played in the UFC for many years, and in 2016 he moved to Bellator. And contrary to popular belief, on average, the fees of fighters in Bellator are higher than in the UFC.

EMELYANENKO OFFERED IDEAL CONDITIONS AND MONEY

duel against Fabio Maldonado this summer, the Russian won by a decision that caused a lot of controversy. Many noted that Emelianenko's victory was given unfairly. International Federation mixed martial arts(WMMAA), held expert assessment and offered to change the decision on the fight. The MMA Union of Russia, which is headed by Emelianenko himself, did not change anything. That match with Maldonado was hosted by the Fight Nights promotion.

A good offer was received from Bellator, but I think it's not only about finances, - the president of Fight Nights explained the decision to Emelianenko Kamil Hajiyev. - Fedor also received a very good and interesting candidate for an opponent. Mitrione arranged it, February is convenient for him, and he is certainly burning with the desire to fight in the USA. As for Emelianenko's ability to compete in other promotions, given the scale of his personality, I think that his contract is probably not designed for a very long period and the number of fights. I do not rule out that he can generally fight in other promotions. Nevertheless, if Fedor has a good relationship with Bellator, I think he will continue to play in this organization. The organization is interested in holding Fedor's fights in the USA, and not in Russia. Yes, and Emelianenko himself is not averse to fighting in America.

According to long-lived Bellator Vitaly Minakov, who has been playing in the promotion since 2012, managed to become a champion and knows the organization’s internal kitchen well, Emelianenko first of all received a good financial offer:

Fedor is now in such a position that everyone wants to see him in their promotion and offer amounts that they can pull. Apparently Bellator suggested best conditions. Bellator has good resources for this, especially given the fact that the promotion is owned by America's richest media company, Viacom.

MITRION - THE LAST EXAM FOR EMELYANENKO

However, according to Minakova, the future rival of Emelianenko, Matt Mitrione, also played an important role in signing the contract:

Fedor wants to fight strong opponents and he himself is still in good shape. The fact that his recent fight against Maldonado was not easy does not mean that he should be written off. If there hadn't been that unfortunate missed blow at the beginning of the meeting, it is not known how the fight would have ended. I think that Fedor would deal with Maldonado quickly. As for his positions in Bellator, we will soon find out. Fedor got a really serious opponent. Mitrione is a good puncher, who won almost all of his victories ahead of schedule. So he is a very serious opposition for any fighter. Maldonado is a pure striker, boxer. He has strengths, but many weak ones. We saw how in the last fight Misha Mokhnatkin simply left him no chance. Matt Mitrione, in turn, is a generalist. Knows how to beat and fight. Versatility is the most important quality in MMA. The same Emelianenko always defeated his rivals due to his versatility.

Another Russian Bellator fighter has a similar opinion. Alexander Shlemenko. In his opinion, the duel with Mitrion will be a real test for Emelianenko, after which it will become clear what he is really capable of:

Bellator can offer him much more serious opponents than anyone else, because the strongest fighters are signed either in Bellator or in the UFC. Mitrion - his first opponent in the organization - is definitely a step forward in Fedor's career. He is stronger and more experienced than Fabio Maldonado. Mitrione is a real heavyweight who has defeated many serious fighters. He will be a real test for Fedor. The fight will show the real strength of Emelianenko and it will be possible to assume whether he is able to fight for the championship belt of the organization. In addition, Fedor will definitely earn more in America than in Russia.

Fedor Emelianenko could become the Bellator champion at 42. What you need to know about it

Match TV announces the Bellator tournament with the participation of Fedor Emelianenko. How Fedor's past attempts to win the Grand Prix ended, why there is no Sergey Kharitonov among the participants, and what Emelianenko's rival has been doing in the last two years - in the material of Match TV correspondents Vadim Tikhomirov and Alexander Lyutikov.

What is a Grand Prix in MMA

Tournaments with the Olympic system (eight fighters from one category, quarter-finals, semi-finals, final are held; losers are eliminated), despite seeming transparency, do not happen so often in MMA. Several disadvantages make this format very cumbersome for the organization. Firstly, there are large time gaps between stages: the standard rhythm of a heavyweight is two fights a year, and it turns out that there can be too much time between the quarterfinals and the final for these two fights to be perceived as part of one competition. Secondly, one year is too long a period to keep all the participants in the cage: injuries, unsuccessful doping tests, the best offers from competitors - all this can destroy the tournament grid to the ground.

The head of the Bellator company, Scott Cocker, is trying for the second time to hold a tournament-eight with the participation of Fedor Emelianenko. In 2011, Cocker, then head of the Strikeforce organization, managed to put together a grandiose line-up of heavyweights without the UFC noticing. But the result was strange. Fedor Emelianenko lost in the quarterfinals. Strikeforce champion Alistair Overeem knocked out of future tournament UFC champion Fabrizio Werdum, but he himself lost interest in continuing to perform. Finally, Andrei Orlovsky, popular in the USA, was knocked out by Sergey Kharitonov, who fought in the States for the first time. The Grand Prix was eventually won by Daniel Cormier, declared as a reserve, and the Strikeforce organization was bought by the UFC before the end of the tournament. That is, Cormier became the winner of the Grand Prix, in fact, a dying promotion.

Fedor and Grand Prix

Fedor participated in tournaments with the grand prix system three times - and never managed to win. This is not news, but a funny coincidence: three times Fedor lost by stopping the doctor, three times it was an injury in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe right eye, and all three cases happened to him in competitions in the Grand Prix format. On December 22, 2000, at the Rings tournament, Emelianenko defeated the Brazilian Ricardo Arona, but in the second fight, the Japanese Tsuyoshi Kosaka needed one elbow strike to open Fedor's cut and the first defeat in the statistics. On August 15, 2004, in the final of the Pride Grand Prix, Fedor and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira collided heads, as a result of which Emelianenko received a huge cut above the eyebrow (you can still see the scar in any photo), and the fight was declared invalid. Finally, on February 12, 2011, in the quarterfinals of the Strikeforce Grand Prix, Antonio Silva finished off Fedor on the ground throughout the second round and ensured that the doctor removed Emelianenko from the fight due to a huge hematoma.

In 2018, Fedor Emelianenko will try to win the tournament with the Grand Prix system on the fourth attempt.

Who are the rivals

The average age of the Grand Prix participant is 39 years. Of the eight fighters, Mohammed Laval (10th, 36 years old) and Roy Nelson (13th, 41 years old) fall into the top 20 of the FightMatrix heavyweight rankings. Quinton Jackson (39) is 22nd, Matt Mitrione (39) is 39th, Fedor (41) is 49th. And 38-year-old Frank Mir will have a two-year non-fight break after being fired from the UFC and testing positive for turinabol. Two more people are light heavyweights (up to 93 kg): 34-year-old Ryan Bader (3rd) and 40-year-old Chel Sonnen (24th).

Strictly speaking, Laval and Jackson are also light heavyweights who only recently came to the heavyweights. But the ratings weight categories in this case are secondary. It is important that Scott Cocker, losing to the UFC both financially and in terms of image, managed to make a tournament where most of the fights will be interesting both before the start, and in the process, and in their continuation.

For example, Chel Sonnen in the ability to speak before the fight bypasses Conor McGregor - in any case, Sonnen's monologues are much funnier. He pretends to be asleep when an opponent tells reporters a parable about lions and jackals, and then suddenly declares that Fedor Emelianenko's real statistics are 3 wins, 4 losses (Sonnen refuses to count Emelianenko's 35 fights outside of American organizations).

The logic of Scott Cocker is simple and clear: he is not trying to compete with the UFC in determining the most strong fighter on the planet. Cocker gives the audience fights between two popular people - and the audience becomes simply interested in knowing the winner. To understand the popularity: out of eight participants in the Grand Prix, six combined sports career with filming. The Grand Prix promises to be so loud that even Rory MacDonald, who competes in the Bellator category up to 77 kg, wanted to fight there.

Of course, Bellator could have gathered a more competitive line-up of participants: Sergey Kharitonov, Bobby Lashley, Cheick Kongo and Vitaly Minakov are on contracts with this organization. But for various reasons, these four were left out of the tournament. Vitaly Minakov has been refusing to fight in Bellator for the fourth year now, as he is unhappy with the terms of his contract with this organization. Sergei Kharitonov, in an interview with Match TV, said that after three fights in 2017 he decided to take a short break and therefore would not take part in the Grand Prix. What is interesting: in May 2018, Kharitonov and Minakov plan to fight against each other at the Fight Nights tournament.

Who will Fedor fight?

This has not been officially announced, but the name of Frank Mir is most often heard, and this is a very inconvenient option for Fedor. The world is taller (190 cm), heavier (118-120 kg), he does not have such an explosion as Matt Mitrione, but he has monumental experience - he has been in the UFC since 2001, was a champion in heavyweight, fought five times in title fights, and among his 11 defeats, it is difficult to find losses to weak opponents. Mir has very good jiu-jitsu - and not a single opponent has ever forced him to give up after a hold. Plus he is three years younger than Fedor. There is only one minus: the World will enter the battle after a two-year disqualification.

What is interesting: in the last two years, Mir has been earning by commenting on the tournaments of the Russian organization DIA.

What can Fedor win?

Fedor's contract with Bellator was signed for two fights with the possibility of an extension for one more. The first fight under this contract Emelianenko held in June 2017, losing by knockout to Matt Mitrione. Thus, Fedor had to play a maximum of two fights on the same terms in Bellator. Now he has joined the tournament, in which he can fight three times.

If Emelianenko wins three victories, he will also receive the Bellator Heavyweight Championship belt in addition to the title of Grand Prix winner. Now this belt is ownerless: no one has fought for it since April 2014, when Vitaly Minakov defeated Cheick Kongo.

A year ago, we crossed paths with Fedor in Macau, China. He had just signed with Bellator - and he wanted to understand if he needed a championship belt. Fedor did not answer the first time. At first he said the usual: "If God wills."

- Bit I'd like?

- We'll fight.

The grand prix final is scheduled for December 2018. Fedor Emelianenko at this moment will be 42 years old.

A photo: globallookpress.com; Facebook.com/BellatorMMA