Fedor Emelianenko begins training camp for return fight

Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

Although it remains unclear what promotion Fedor Emelianenko will fight for over the coming months, that has not stopped the heavyweight from commencing a training camp of sorts in his hometown of Stary Oskol.

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PRIDE legend and consensus greatest heavyweight of all-time, Fedor Emelianenko, is coming out of retirement and will be competing in Mixed Martial Arts once again. <span class=”m-entry-admin-button” data-remote-admin-entry-type=”button” data-remote-admin-entry-id=”8735118″></span>

Coach: Fedor still has huge fighting potential

Karim Zidan

Vladimir Voronov, Fedor’s coach, discussed his longtime student’s decision to return to MMA.

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Over this past weekend, Russian promotion Fight Nights released various photos of Fedor training alongside some of the promotion’s top talent, including notable kickboxer turned MMA fighter Vladimir Mineev and UFC fighter Konstantin Erokhin. The sessions are conducted at the Alexander Nevsky club in Stary Oskol.

The ‘Last Emperor’ received offers to fight for the UFC and Bellator amongst others. According to a source close to Fedor, who spoke to BloodyElbow.com on the condition of anonymity, the heavyweight’s UFC offer was significantly more lucrative than his Bellator offer.

Can this be a sign of things to come?

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About the author

Karim Zidan

Karim Zidan is a investigative reporter and feature writer focusing on the intersection of sports and politics. He has written for BloodyElbow since 2014 and has served as an associate editor since 2016. He also writes for The New York Times and The Guardian. Karim has been invited to speak about his work at numerous universities, including Princeton, and was a panelist at the South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival and the Oslo Freedom Forum. He also participated in the United Nations counter-terrorism conference in 2021. His reporting on Ramzan Kadyrov’s involvement in MMA, much of which was done for Bloody Elbow, has led to numerous award nominations, and was the basis of an award-winning HBO Real Sports documentary.