Fedor Emelianenko put his gloves on the canvas and then cracked a warm smile while nearly a dozen mixed martial arts greats stood behind him
“On the one side, I’m sad I didn’t deliver on the fight as I wanted to,” Emelianenko said through a translator. “But on the other side, I’m so happy that all these fans and all these veteran fighters are here cheering for me.”
“It was bittersweet,” Bader said. “I idolized him like every MMA fan and fighter coming up. He put the sport on his back. That is a legend right there.” Emelianenko began his MMA career in 2000 after serving in the Russian Army, and he quickly acquired a reputation as a vaunted underground talent in a sport that still felt like a countercultural phenomenon at the time.
His first fight with Bader was a notable exception: Four years ago last weekend at the Forum, Bader knocked out Emelianenko with a massive left hook just 35 seconds in. Emelianenko had fought only twice since then, and just once since the start of the coronavirus pandemic — yet he still insisted on finishing his career against Bader, the tested heavyweight champion.
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