Fedor Emelianenko is by near unanimous agreement the greatest heavyweight in the history of mixed martial arts. In a sport where the UFC heavyweight only just defended the belt successfully for a third time and then lost it, Fedor’s peak streak is barely human.
•His 29-fight streak started on April 6, 2001, and ended on June 26, 2010, for more than nine years. Add four fights and a year if you discount the bogus cut stoppage.
•Of his 29 fights, if you throw out the no contest, there were five decisions out of 28, a finishing percentage of 82.1%.
•Ten were against fighters who at some point in their careers held major MMA championships, and that doesn’t include his high profile career win over Mirko Cro Cop.
•Holds career wins over UFC champs or title challengers Andrei Arlovski, Mark Coleman (twice), Cro Cop, Mark Hunt, Matt Lindland, Big Nog (twice), Kevin Randleman, and Tim Sylvia.
And he’s still at it at 42, winning a spot in the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix finals on Saturday night in the DAZN streamed Bellator 208 main event. The sole question is, is Fedor the greatest fighter of all time? Bellator MMA president thinks so, and argued compellingly that Fedor doesn’t have to win the GP to prove it.
I already feel like he’s the GOAT, Coker as transcribed by Fernanda Prates and Mike Bohn for MMAjunkie. He has nothing to prove. To me, he has nothing to prove. He’s doing this because he wants to compete and he’s had some tough opposition, and if he won the tournament I’d be happy for him and I think this is something he really, really wants.
Everybody knows that Fedor’s been fighting a while. He was the king of PRIDE, then he fought for me in Strikeforce, and now he’s here in Bellator. He’s already proven everything. He’s the GOAT and whatever he does now will just add to the legacy of Fedor.
When I watch countdown shows myself as a fan, I see Fedor hit the mitts and I’m like, ‘Man, this guy still has that twitch speed,’ Coker said. He’s still fast, he’s still explosive, he hits hard. That’s something that’s not going to go away. The speed might go away, but the power doesn’t go away, but the speed, he still has that speed. To me it’s pretty impressive man. I think the reason why is he has just not stopped training. He’s always in shape and he’s always training. He’s never stopped training for long periods of time.
It’s been a great journey.
Ryan Bader, he showed me that he can control a big, big man and do what he needs to do to win, Coker said. He’s going to try to do that to Fedor, and does Fedor have some tricks up his sleeve. We’ll see. It’s going to be an interesting fight.
Fedor fights Ryan Bader in the GP finals for the Bellator heavyweight championship on Jan. 26 in Inglewood, California.
