Fedor Emelianenko’s presence in the UFC was a prospect which many fight fans had dearly hoped to see at some point.
2016 looked to be the year which the MMA legend would team up with UFC President Dana White and co when he became a free agent last year. When news broke confirming that ‘The Last Emperor’ had chosen Bellator, eyebrows were raised. While it was not surprising to others that the Russian would prefer to work alongside former Strikeforce promoter Scott Coker, the fact that he had rejected the UFC’s advances in favor of doing so prompted questions.
Speaking with Ariel Helwani on Monday afternoon’s episode of The MMA Hour, Fedor (through an interpretor) cited an established professional relationship with with Coker and Bellator’s agreement to recruit Fedor’s teammates to the promotion as decisive factors in obtaining his signature:
“We had made great relations with Scott Coker. I received a very good offer from Bellator. In addition, Bellator invited my entire team. So all of the guys will be performing as well.”
Emelianenko makes his promotional debut in the main event of Bellator 172 this Saturday in San Jose, California. The man who many claim to be the greatest MMA fighter in history stated that he was on the verge of signing for the UFC, but with both parties failing to agree on terms, the deal could not be done:
“Depending on the point of view, a lot of times you can be very close and sort of go around and around and never get to it,” he said. “There were some things that were not satisfactory for UFC and there were some things that were not satisfactory for me and we never came to an agreement.”
“One of the main reasons was the ability for my team to perform, for my guys to perform,” Emelianenko said. “The other reasons were, we were not exactly on the same terms [with the UFC] as far as the financial conditions and some other things, some other smaller things as well.”
