Fedor Emelianenko: The Myth Continues

With all the zaniness that has happened within the major leagues of MMA over the last few years, who ever thought this is where it was headed? I mean, this is an actual headline:

FEDOR EMELIANENKO TO FACE CHAEL SONNEN…IN BELLATOR…IN 2018…WITH THE WINNER TO COMPETE FOR THE HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP…NO FOOLSIES…

Who could have ever predicted something as crazy and random as that would happen? But that’s the reality we now live in, all thanks to the glory that is the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix.

Scott Coker, President of Bellator, is a pretty smart guy. He knows he can’t compete with the UFC in terms of top shelf athletes, so he doesn’t bother trying to (at least not until he signs a few more disgruntled former UFC contenders). He looks to fill the spectacle niche that’s always existed in the sport, something that he takes flack for on a regular basis but something that, for the most part, he manages to succeed with.

It’s like how the DC Extended Universe can’t compete with the quality of the Marvel Cinematic Universe so they get moviegoers to come out by producing the biggest superhero-based atrocities ever committed on film.

That is what they’re trying to do, right? I sure hope so. Henry Cavill’s CGI’d upper lip still gives me chills…

The big example of Coker’s use of spectacle right now is the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix, bringing back one of the funnest things about one of the funnest MMA promotions ever, Pride (well, “fun” if you don’t think about all the shady stuff that went on behind the scenes), and making it the biggest circle on Bellator’s calendar this year.

This tournament is more important than anything else the company is doing in 2018, even title fights. It does have an end game of crowning a new heavyweight champion, though, which I guess is a big deal, even if half the field are light heavyweight fighters (plus a middleweight), none of whom would be considered championship caliber in the UFC.

But that doesn’t matter because this is Bellator. YAY BELLATOR!!!!

In the UFC, Fedor Emelianenko is just a mythical “What could have been.”

In Bellator, the legend of “The Last Emperor” is still going strong, even more so after Saturday night, after he crushed Frank Mir with a left uppercut to end his quarterfinal fight early to advance to the next round of the tournament.

Now, this is definitely one of those fights where it’s hard to say exactly how much Fedor did right vs. how much Frank did wrong, because Frank did plenty wrong, namely charging after a man with quick, heavy hands who thrives on opponents being overly aggressive.

I don’t know what Frank was doing. Maybe he got confident after dropping Fedor seconds into the start of the fight and thought he could wade through anything the Russian might throw at him. If so, that theory got proven false pretty quickly after he missed a punch and ended up kissing the canvas in rather violent fashion.

I can understand if Frank was antsy after not having fought in 2 years and felt that Fedor may not offer up the challenge he once could have, but Frank has lost just as many steps in his game in the past decade as Fedor has, if not more.

Fedor is not who he once was but he’s still Fedor. He’ll still knock you out if you aren’t careful.

At least now we know who the best heavyweight in the world is…in 2004.

While I meant that as a joke (laugh, damn you…) this win does bring a sense of closure to any questions that may have remained about who the best heavyweight of the mid 2000s was.

In that era, the top heavyweights in the UFC were Mir, Tim Sylvia, and Andrei Arlovski, while Pride saw Fedor, Minotauro Nogueira, and Mirko Cro Cop rule over the land of the rising sun.

Fedor has beaten all of those guys. The only fighters from that era he didn’t get to face are Randy Couture, who already has a fight booked against Star Lord, and Josh Barnett. And no one is going to try and put that fight together, lest they want to see their promotion cease to exist shortly thereafter.

Then again, I’m a little surprised President Trump has yet to issue an Executive Order allowing for Affliction to start promoting MMA events again. Did you know Michael Cohen was the COO of Affliction MMA? Talk about crazy and random…

Speaking of which, I can’t say that Russia meddled in U.S. elections in 2016, but they sure meddled in rearranging Frank Mir’s face on Saturday night.

And that brings us to our new reality: one where Fedor, the man many consider to be the greatest heavyweight and/or the greatest fighter of all time, the GOAT to beat all other GOATs, is on a collision course with Chael Sonnen, the man who has competed in multiple title fights and main events for no other reason than he knows how to draw attention to himself in a way that doesn’t involve spoiling movie endings on Twitter.

And I guess he’s a solid wrestler too. He did a good job of laying on top of Quinton “Rampage” Jackson back in January to advance to this point.

Actually, with Chael’s wrestling background and his time spent training with guys like Couture and Dan Henderson, this may be the closest we get to seeing the two legendary champions compete in anything other than a video game.

Am I saying that to imply that, if Chael defeats Fedor, he will use the victory to begin calling himself “The Greatest Fighter of All Time”? No but that’s only because he’s already doing that. He’s got the plastic UFC championship belt as proof.

Either way, I can’t say I won’t be excited to see that fight. For as silly and gimmicky as the Grand Prix has been so far, and was always meant to be, it has been exciting. I’m one of the few who liked it when Bellator was all about tournaments so it’s nice to see them go back to that, even if it’s only this one and even if it’s just Coker doing what he did in Strikeforce all over again. That Grand Prix helped Daniel Cormier break through in a big way. Let’s see who ultimately breaks through with this Grand Prix.

You know who I think will break through? Daniel Cormier. Again. I mean, with matchups like Matt Mitrione vs. the Ryan Bader/King Mo winner ahead of us, it sure makes DC challenging Stipe Miocic for the UFC gold in July seem all the more appealing, right?

The heavyweight division has always been bad, hasn’t it…

Evan Zivin has been writing for 411 MMA since May of 2013. Evan loves the sport, and likes to takes a lighthearted look at the world of MMA in his writing…usually.