“The Last Emperor” is now coming back from retirement.
Once named as the best MMA fighter in the whole world, Fedor Emelianenko has confirmed that he preparing to come back to professional fighting.
Back in 2012, Fedor decided to end his mixed martial arts career on a high note. Three years later, a lot of people still consider him as one of the greatest MMA athletes of all time. After a few years divulging in different political events in Russia, the renowned fighter decided that it is time to come back and return to what he loved to do.
“The Legend” mentioned that he knows it will take a lot of hardwork to be fit and be ready to compete in today’s MMA. It will definitely not be easy as simply coming back to the octagon and fight like he did three years ago. Fedor also said that though his overall fitness may look fine, perfecting the skills he once knew by heart and modifying it according to how the sport has changed over the past few years will not come easy. He knew he needed to have a team that will hone his skills and help him get back to his feet.
In a recent interview, mixed martial arts legend Fedor acknowledged that it is not easy to get back into shape, which will allow him to compete professionally. He said, “I managed to recover and heal the old injuries. For the last 3 years, I was maintaining my physical shape, but that’s still not enough to compete at proper level. Therefore I started to do more intensive trainings recently. We got a team of versatile professionals and athletes, who will help me to prepare myself well enough.”.
Speaking in his native tongue, Fedor said that is really important for any fighter to do what they love, to push and do their best when working out on training sessions, and to prove their hardwork on the competitions while representing their country. He also said that during his time working for the Ministry of Sport back in Russia, he managed to contribute a lot to the development of martial arts. He also cooperated with the sports federations, studied the problems of the sport that he loved, and tried to solve them to the best of his ability. However, even though he achieved so much on this aspect of his MMA career, he felt that it is about time to come back to professional fighting.
Among all his achievements in his career, one of the things that stood out the most is him not fighting in the UFC. It is said that there were plenty of negotiations back then, but none of it materialized.
Although he did not deny anything just yet, he said during the interview, “Negotiations are underway with (promotions). Once agreements are reached, there will be information on the date of the fight and (opponent).”. It looks like there is a chance that the much-awaited fight in the UFC will finally take place this time around.