Red Corner MMA<\/a>). \u201cI was speaking to young people and someone asked me, \u2018Do you have a dream? Who would you like to fight?\u2019 Under any rules, something like that.<\/p>\n\u201cIf we\u2019re talking about a real dream, in fighting Francis Ngannou, I couldn\u2019t manage MMA now. I have too many injuries, but I\u2019d have a go at him in boxing. That\u2019s just me thinking out loud. That\u2019s all it is. I never said we were in negotiations.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 50-year-old Emelianenko last competed in 2023, when he retired following a first-round knockout loss to Ryan Bader at Bellator 290. That marked the end of one of the most legendary careers in MMA, with Emelianenko universally revered for his time with Japan\u2019s PRIDE promotion, where he saw his greatest success and defeated fellow legends Mirko Cro Cop, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Mark Coleman, and Kevin Randleman, among others.<\/p>\n
From 2001 to 2010, Emelianenko went 28 consecutive bouts without a loss.<\/p>\n
Emelianenko\u2019s success and mystique made him a constant target for the UFC, though the two sides never came to an agreement. According to Emelianenko, it\u2019s White and company who appeared to be disingenuous in their approach. He pointed to his status in 2009, when he was a free agent after a win over Brett Rogers, that eventually led to him re-signing with Strikeforce.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I didn\u2019t understand,\u201d Emelianenko said. \u201cI didn\u2019t understand the point of his actions. He came over saying, \u2018I want you to fight for me.\u2019 He made that very clear, but one fight earlier, I\u2019d been a free agent. I was free and they didn\u2019t sign me. \u2026 It happened every time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I\u2019m free, they aren\u2019t interested. When I\u2019m under contract, the offers start coming, but if you\u2019re under contract, you can\u2019t sign another one. There would be legal proceedings. While those were going on, I couldn\u2019t fight in America. I\u2019d be barred from competing. All of that was discussed then. \u2018If there were legal proceedings, would you cover all the costs?\u2019 Obviously, I wasn\u2019t going to leave. But at [manager Vadim Finkelstein\u2019s] request, we met him and the lawyers. Honestly, I didn\u2019t understand why. I think they just wanted to shut me down. They sign me, Strikeforce sues me, and I can\u2019t fight for either side. That\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The experience left Emelianenko with a dim view of White and his business tactics.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are different kinds of businessmen,\u201d Emelianenko said. \u201cSome are decent and respectful. Some people don\u2019t even need a contract. A handshake is enough, they keep their word. But now Dana is talking all sorts of nonsense. First he wanted me, then he didn\u2019t. Then he regretted it, then he\u2019s glad he never signed me. The man talks and changes his story. He simply doesn\u2019t stand by his words. His way of doing business doesn\u2019t sit well with me.<\/p>\n
\u201cA legend? If someone thinks he\u2019s a legend, let them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fedor Emelianenko still sees himself mentioned among the biggest names in MMA despite long being retired. The Russian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":950822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702],"class_list":["post-950821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/950822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}