Emperor MMA Fedor Emelianenko returned to play in February

Ending 2022 with the event combined with Rizin, Bellator opened in 2023 with the return of a legend. “The last emperor” Fedor Emelianenko will officially be upper after more than 1 year of a break. His opponent in the Bellator battle of the Heavyweight weighted Bellator on February 5 will be Ryan Bader.

This is not the first time Fedor and Bader encountered each other at a match within the Bellator framework. Earlier in January 2019, Fedor and Bader met in the finals of the Heavyweight Bellator belt. The winner was then Ryan Bader with TKO attack in just 35 seconds of competition.

By this reunion, Fedor is said to have been much more carefully prepared. However, the biggest burden for Russian boxers is now age. Fedor has now turned 47, and he can only play with a frequency of about 1 match/year for the past 10 years. Since signing the contract with Bellator, the Fedor has just fought 6 matches in 6 years.

The return of Fedor is not as professional as before, but it is extremely important for Bellator. This tournament has witnessed a clear decline in recent years. The best boxers of Bellator left the tournament in turn to PFL or UFC. Bader also docked Bellator only after the contract ended with UFC and was not extended.

With the high -level managers of Bellator, they must expect the match that Fedor will “open the bowl” in the new year 2023 impressively. It will be a good start for the Bellator reconstruction, when Fedor is one of the rare stars they still retain in recent years.

Who is Fedor, how excellent?

Fedor, full name Fedor Vladimirovich Emelianenko, is the Russian MMA boxer. He often plays in Heavyweight's weight class, fluent in many martial arts such as Sambo, Judo, Muay. Sports Illustrated commented Fedor as one of the best MMA boxers of all time. Mike Tyson claimed that no fighter was better than Fedor when he was playing, and also likened him to Pele of the MMA world.

The influence of Fedor was so great that Dana White, the UFC boss once affirmed that Fedor was the one he desires to sign a first contract. UFC even invited Fedor to remunerate 2 million USD/match and the bonus according to Pay Per View revenue. However, the contract between the last two parties broke out because UFC did not accept cooperation with M-1 Global, the Russian MMA tournament system.

As of 2021, Fedor defeated 7 UFC's Heavyweight MMA champion. He is considered to be the perfect boxer because of the striking level and the locking skills are all at the Olympic level. As a fighter of striking, but Fedor has a number of victories with a tight lock equivalent.