During the buildup to UFC 133, one of the things people kept asking Dana White about was the legacy of the greatest fighter of the Pride era: Fedor Emelianenko. With whatever was left of his mystique disappearing underneath the fists of Dan Henderson, and his presence under the Zuffa banner disappearing per Dana White and Strikeforce, Fedor’s future looks fairly unremarkable. But it’s his legacy that we can look back to, the decade spent undefeated with the scalps of the best of his era on his wall, and White’s comments seem to be more of a jealous lover spurned as opposed to objective analysis. And with Fedor looking to take a couple fights before returning to the U.S at a future time, one this fall in his native Russia and another on New Year’s Eve in Japan, leaves him in a peculiar situation. Why?
Two reasons, actually. Anyone worth fighting or anyone of note probably won’t be on either the M-1 Global Card or the potential Japanese fight, for starters. And the other is that fighting Fedor doesn’t mean as much as it did and may never mean as much as it used to again.
One of the downsides of the Zuffa monopoly over big time MMA worldwide is that the talent pool outside of the UFC and Strikeforce is thinner than it ever has been. The sheer volume of top 30 fighters in each division has almost universally been pulled into either of the Zuffa organizations. There isn’t a high quantity of heavyweight fighters to begin with and that’s before you exclude anyone with a big enough name to fight Fedor that isn’t in the UFC.
Any of the name Strikeforce fighters have fights already lined up this fall already or will soon. With Strikeforce being primed to be another name on the Zuffa competition tombstone don’t expect fighters to be lining for this fight, either. One of the perks of the Zuffa monopoly is that one thing that’ll start happening is that the bulk of the Strikeforce roster that could take other fights won’t because soon enough they’ll be under the UFC banner properly in less than 12 months.
It leaves Fedor and M-1 with a handful of fairly crappy options for the type of comeback Fedor would need to rehabilitate his image and shirk off a three-fight losing streak. In order to get back to the point where he could legitimately ask for co-promotion and a big paycheck again he’s going to need a couple of big wins to get him back on the right track. A couple of quick wins over subpar competition might get him back on track to get a big fight but they won’t enhance his legacy one bit. The sheer bulk of fighters out there worth fighting in the heavyweight division available without the Zuffa strings are going to increase the catcalls that Fedor has a Lycopene deficiency and crushing tomato cans are his cure.
Fighting Fedor might not even be enough to get a big name back in the cage with him, either.
With the amount of talent out there, the only big time fight that wouldn’t involve a Strikeforce or UFC fighter would be against Alistair Overeem. Overeem has a fight scheduled in Russia for Golden Glory this fall and an opponent has yet to be scheduled, so it would to make perfect sense. It would be the biggest fight you could make without a Strikeforce or UFC fighter but here’s the thing: Overeem doesn’t need a win over Fedor now. He can bide his time and wait to negotiate a deal with Zuffa or go back to being one of the best kickboxing heavyweights in the world, taking MMA fights occasionally.
Being being the guy everyone refers to as the best fighter not under the Zuffa banner couldn’t hurt his pocketbook as long as he maintains his current aura of invincibility. He doesn’t need Fedor’s scalp on his wall because it wouldn’t mean as much. The eyes of Overem are aimed much higher than what would amount to something between nostalgia and fringe top 10 competition right now. And a fight with Fedor in Moscow, no matter how large, probably wouldn’t pay as much as Overeem and Fedor would demand, either.
If Fedor can make a grand comeback and gain back anything close to the mystique he once had it would make for one of the great comeback stories in MMA history. But it’ll be a lot harder than anyone thinks.
