The Emperor strikes the final blow

Fedor Emelianenko, a Russian fighter with unique charisma and unique talents, who has long been considered, in fact, the main figure in a rapidly growing genre.

Materials about the fight, which will take place on Saturday in Inglewood, California, or rather, about its 46-year-old Russian participant, filled virtually the entire page of the site for several days. ESPNdedicated to mixed martial arts. They hung there, as if pointing out a mistake to those who considered Fedor Emelianenko primarily a domestic phenomenon, and not a global phenomenon. Well, no, of course: his popularity climbed beyond the borders of Russia a long time ago, conquering the entire MMA-addicted part of the planet, and, as it turned out, didn’t go away even after Emelianenko’s homeland gave her many more great fighters, including the inimitable Khabib Nurmagomedov, and he lost his leadership position.

Fedor Emelianenko still remains a chic bait, an adornment of the show poster. Especially given the status of the fight – both the championship and the farewell for the legend.

In the same ESPN materials, one can find, it seems, a brilliant correction. Abroad, the nickname “The Last Emperor” stuck to him. But strictly speaking, now, having the opportunity to cast a glance far back, it would indeed be more fair to call Fedor Emelianenko “The First Emperor.”

A chic sambo wrestler, he got into mixed martial arts at the turn of the past and present centuries – at a time when they were gradually turning from an extreme and slightly marginal type into a full-fledged type, with strict rules and a more or less well-thought-out hierarchy, and extremely in demand. Emelianenko, most likely, helped the jump in this demand more than any of the other fighters.

From 2000 to 2010, he spent more than three dozen fights and suffered the only defeat in them – at the start of his ascent from the Japanese Tsuyoshi Kosaki. And it’s hard to call it a defeat: Kosaka cut Fedor Emelianenko’s eyebrow with a forbidden blow so that he could not continue the fight, and the tournament regulations required that the fight had a winner who could go further along the grid. Skeptics have always pointed out that Emelianenko never fought in the UFC, the leading MMA promotion, having refused a contract with him for various reasons. But now he is undeniably the leader, and in the 2000s he was still only gaining power, and the organizations in which he played, getting their titles, the Russian – Pride, Strikeforce – were not too far behind in importance.

At the same time, the active migration of fighters between promotions allowed Emelianenko to meet with the lion’s share of the heavyweight elite – and overcome it all.

During his heyday, neither the Brazilian António Nogueira, nor the Dutchman Sammy Schilt, nor the Americans Mark Coleman and Tim Sylvianeither Croat Mirko Filipovich, nor Belarusian Andrey Orlovsky, nor New Zealander Mark Hunt.

But it’s not so much about statistics and titles, but about the very special charm of Fedor Emelianenko. He definitely became the first athlete in mixed martial arts, with whom the definition of “phenomenon” was associated absolutely organically, without the slightest exaggeration.

The phenomenal had a curious connotation. In order to fall in love with the audience, Emelianenko did not need to master the art of thrash talk. In general, he always remained surprisingly “quiet” for a kind of human activity – there were enough “statements” on the sports ground.

A rather ordinary physique, completely different from the heavy killer, he achieved victories in the way that admirers of simple, but “correct” and spectacular cinema most of all adore – when a pumped-up villain is easy, using talent, wisdom and cunning, sometimes noticeable only on the video replay of the tricks, a good guy with a kind face and ordinary muscles calmly hobbles. It is no coincidence that the most notable hits of his career were fights that ended in paradoxical, or something, victories for the Russian. This, for example, is a fight with a 218-cm Korean Choi Hong Man, who lay down on Emelianenko so tightly that he almost completely covered his body, but even in this position he ran into such a painful hold that he had to give up, or a duel with a man who was on the peak of the Belarusian Andrey Orlovsky, who seemed to have driven Fedor Emelianenko into a corner, preparing to destroy him – and ran into an unexpected knockout blow.

Emelianenko’s dominance was interrupted by a loss to Brazilian Fabricio Werdum in 2010, followed immediately by two more. But those who believed that the Russian phenomenon was blown away, sat down in a puddle.

Fedor Emelianenko in the past decade really parted with performances for some time, heading the MMA Union of Russia and creating his own team, in which many excellent fighters have matured, but still returned.

And even at a veteran age, he looked pretty good, cracking down on such powerful opponents as the Americans Chael Sonnen and Frank Mir, and in his forties reached the fight for the prestigious Bellator title. In it, in 2019, Emelianenko lost to Ryan Bader, and on Saturday he will have a rematch with the American, which, whatever the result, of course, will end with a standing ovation in his address.

Alexey Dospekhov