Fedor Emelianenko: Retirement fight ‘likely’ in January 2023

Fedor Emelianenko—widely considered the greatest heavyweight fighter of all time—will likely be hanging up his gloves in a matter of months. According to the…

By: Karim Zidan | 10 months ago
Fedor Emelianenko: Retirement fight ‘likely’ in January 2023
Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

Fedor Emelianenko—widely considered the greatest heavyweight fighter of all time—will likely be hanging up his gloves in a matter of months.

According to the ‘Last Emperor,’ his retirement fight will “most likely” take place in January 2023 at a yet-to-be-announced Bellator MMA event.

“I still have one fight, the last fight,” Emelianenko said during a recent press conference. “Most likely, we’ll see. It will take place next January.”

The former PRIDE champion commenced a “retirement tour” last year, knocking out Tim Johnson at Bellator 269 in Moscow, Russia. It was his second consecutive victory since losing to Ryan Bader in the heavyweight grand prix.

Though Emelianenko did not reveal whether he has an opponent in place for his last fight, Bellator MMA president Scott Coker revealed that Emelianenko was lobbying for a rematch against Bader in order to avenge his TKO loss.

“This is his last fight on his contract,” Coker told reporters last week (h/t MMAFighting). “He told me he wants to retire, and I haven’t talked to Bader about it. But it’s something, that, you know, it’s hard to say no to Fedor – let’s put it that way. We’ll definitely consider it, but it’s definitely not inked or something that’s imminent. But definitely, we’ll have that conversation.”

Coker also noted that Russia play host to Emelianenko’s retirement fight, though no plans have been finalized as of last week.

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About the author
Karim Zidan
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.

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