Throughout his career in MMA, Fedor Emelianenko fought and got the better of several UFC legends but there were a few fighters who successfully beat the Russian.
Despite having never fought under the UFC banner, Fedor Emelianenko is widely regarded as one of the greatest fighters of all time and UFC icon Joe Rogan consistently claims he is the greatest heavyweight ever.
Now 48 years old, Fedor has seemingly been offered a comeback to combat sport by the IBO president who offered former UFC champion Jon Jones a super fight against ‘The Last Emperor’.
Emelianenko fought and beat several UFC legends throughout his career, including an extremely dominant win over Chael Sonnen, but when he met Dan Henderson in the cage on July 30, 2011, things were a little different.
Dan Henderson scored huge round one upset over Fedor
In 2010 and 2011 after back-to-back losses against Fabricio Werdum and Antonio Silva, the Russian was matched up against Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Henderson.
Going into the fight, ‘The Last Emperor’ was the favorite in the matchup because of his sheer dominance prior to his two losses and the fact that he was a natural heavyweight and ‘Hendo’ was moving up.
As soon as the fight began, Fedor tried to put his hands on Henderson but was quickly shown that if he fought reckless then he would be caught as Henderson almost dropped him within seconds.
Despite struggling early on, Emelianenko then scored a knockdown around midway through the first round, jumping on Henderson in an attempt to finish the fight.
However, Henderson pulled off a terrific reversal and somehow made it to the back of Fedor where he landed a surprise uppercut underneath the Russian’s guard, putting his lights out immediately.
After then being hit with a few more heavy shots, it seemed to wake Fedor up who moved position but Herb Dean had already called a stop to the fight.
Fedor complained about the stoppage after the fight
Following the event during the post-fight press conference, Fedor complained about Dean’s stoppage, claiming that he was working to improve his position.
“It seems to me, yes (the fight was stopped early), it seems to me objectively I was ready to continue fighting, so yes,” Fedor claimed.
At this point, it was totally unprecedented that Fedor has suffered three losses in a row, but fortunately, he bounced back from the tough run in his career with five impressive wins in different promotions.