This Friday in Saint Petersburg, Russia, former PRIDE superstar Fedor Emelianenko looks to secure his fifth consecutive victory when he faces Brazilian battler Fabio Maldonado in the main event of EFN (Eurasia Fight Nights) 50 on UFC FIGHT PASS at 11am ET/8am PT. A win for Emelianenko would be the 36th of a storied career that has established him as one of the greatest heavyweights ever.
Want proof? Read on…
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PRIDE 25: Fedor's reign begins
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Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira was the first and unquestioned king of PRIDE’s heavyweight division, but like any inevitable change of power, the new monarch will come in by force, and after PRIDE wins over Semmy Schilt and Heath Herring, Russia’s Fedor Emelianenko decisioned Nogueira in March of 2003, beginning a reign that lasted for the rest of the organization’s history, making his nickname, “The Last Emperor”, even more fitting.
2003-2004: Fedor is human – well, at least a little
With his long reign over the PRIDE heavyweight division, almost machine-like precision and humble manner, it’s easy to forget that Fedor Emelianenko is also human, something shown when he got rocked badly by Kazuyuki Fujita at PRIDE 26 (UFC FIGHT PASS subscribers: Watch this moment here) and suplexed by Kevin Randleman at PRIDE Critical Countdown (UFC FIGHT PASS subscribers: Watch this moment here). Those fights were in 2003-04, and he came back to win both by submission. No one in PRIDE came close to beating him after that.
PRIDE Final Conflict 2005: Fedor defeats Cro Cop
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When Fedor Emelianenko won the PRIDE heavyweight title, he was on a collision course with Mirko Cro Cop, and after the Croatian put together a seven-fight winning streak that included a knockout of Fedor’s brother Aleksander, he was finally granted his shot in what was one of the most highly-anticipated bouts of all-time. Emelianenko took the drama out of it early though, dominating from start to finish en route to a decision victory.
Affliction: Fedor makes short work of The Maine-iac
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It’s almost hard to believe that Fedor’s last PRIDE bout took place almost ten years ago, and some don’t realize that the Russian powerhouse still went on to fight and beat elite competition after his days in the PRIDE ring were over. Case in point, his July 2008 meeting with Tim Sylvia. A former UFC heavyweight champion, Sylvia was just five months removed from his last Octagon bout, a third-round submission loss to Minotauro Nogueira in an interim title bout, and while Sylvia suffered the same fate against Fedor, it didn’t take three rounds. It only took Fedor 36 seconds.
Affliction: Taming the Pit Bull
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Six months after the Sylvia bout, Emelianenko lined up another former UFC heavyweight champion in Andrei Arlovski. Less than a year after leaving the UFC, Arlovski was on one of the best runs of his career, as he brought a five-fight, four-knockout streak into the January 2009 bout. Among Arlovski’s knockout victims were Roy Nelson, Ben Rothwell and Jake O’Brien, but in this game, if you live by the sword you can die by the sword, and Emelianenko scored a first-round knockout over “The Pit Bull,” adding another chapter to the Fedor legend.