Were He In His Prime, Fedor Emelianenko Would Choose Fight With Cain Velasquez

Legendary Pride FC heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko has been out of action since a first round starching of Pedro Rizzo back in June 2012. “The Last Emperor” promptly retired after the bout, leaving many fans to wonder what could have been if Fedor had only signed with the UFC in his prime.

But his management and UFC President Dana White never saw eye to eye, so Emelianenko never got to fight the elite heavies in the Octagon, which would have been Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar at the time. That time passed, and the Russian Sambo master won’t be coming back.

However, he does know whom he would like to fight were he back in his dominant days. Speaking at a media function in Calgary to promote amateur MMA by hopefully getting it into the Olympics, Fedor told the Alberta Sun that he would want to face off with none other than UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez:

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“Cain Velasquez. He has some technical difficulties, but he has ambition and he’s fearless. He wants to win so badly and he’s in great condition. He’s a thinking fighter.”

A sharp assessment from Emelianenko, who apparently hasn’t missed a beat during his time away from the sport. In fact, he said that he still trains, something that helps him retain the love of fighting on a day-to-day basis:

“I still train, so there isn’t much that I miss. A true athlete is someone who doesn’t just stop training when they stop competing. It’s a way of life and they keep in shape just to keep up that standard.

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Plus, there’s a lot of younger guys who would like to take me down, so I always need to keep up because I definitely don’t want that to happen.”

His last words sound like there may be a slight chance of a return, but we can only hope as fans. Emelianenko is likely gone for good, but he left us with an almost unmatchable reign that has him near the top of the conversation for best fighter of all-time.

It’s a shame that we saw him fade a bit down the stretch of his career, losing to Fabricio Werdum, Antonio Silva, and Dan Henderson in Strikeforce before returning to fight for his management’s promotion M-1 in his home country. His best days were obviously back in Pride’s heyday, when he smashed notable names like Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, among many others.

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He beat the best versions of those opponents, and he made it look easy. Do you think the best version of Fedor could have beat the grinding Velasquez?