A decade ago, Fedor Emelianenko saw his extraordinary 28-fight win streak broken by Fabricio Werdum, who is now a free agent after eight years in the UFC. “The Last Emperor” traveled to Mohegan Sun to corner Vadim Nemkov, who challenges light heavyweight champ Ryan Bader in the main event of Bellator 244 on Friday, and was interviewed by Nolan King for MMA Junkie.

Bellator CEO Scott Coker had planned a retirement tour for the 43-year-old legend; locations reportedly included Russian, Japan, and USA. Then the COVID-19 global pandemic arrived.

“I’m fine,” said Fedor. “Everything is fine. I’ve never stopped training. I’m constantly training, waiting for the next fight.

I don’t necessarily feel a sense of urgency [to fight], but I also don’t want to wait too long either. If there are no people in the audience then the TV audience is that much larger. It doesn’t take away from the fight. Eyeballs are still watching.

I have a meeting with Scott to discuss what the future holds as far as fighting. Obviously, [the pandemic] is unfortunate. Tomorrow, there will be a fight without fans, but these are the times we’re living in.

For myself, yes, I would like to fight [Werdum]. Whether that’s a fight fans are interested in seeing or Bellator is interested in putting on, I don’t know that.

Coker later said the retirement tour will still happen, and that Werdum, who went 3-1 for Coker’s Strikeforce from 2009-2011, is a possibility.

“[Tour plans] haven’t changed, said Coker. It’s just now we have a little beat now because of the COVID situation. We’re going to see how it goes because Europe has started to open up where you can actually have some fans. The numbers are way down and they kind of have it under control a little bit better than we do.

… But listen, Fedor has to fight in front of fans. I think that’s why you don’t see a lot of the MMA stars fighting now because they need the fans there to support it. Fedor is the same way. He’s the greatest heavyweight of all time. For me, it would be a shame for him to fight in an arena where there’s nobody there to watch his last few fights. We’re going to play it by ear. This is actually the first time I’ve seen Fedor.

I love Fabricio and it’s something really that’s Fedor’s decision. One of the things I’m going to talk to Fedor tonight is, ‘Is this an important fight for you?’ Whatever he says, then we’ll go make it happen. If it’s an important fight to him, then we’ll probably put it together. If not, it doesn’t mean we won’t still pursue Fabricio.

The fight with him and Fedor would be something that if it was an important revenge-type scenario for Fedor in his mind, and something that still eats at him every day, then it would be something we’d be interested in.