Even Dana White admits that Fedor Emelianenko not joining the UFC is one of the biggest ‘what if’ moments in the promotion’s history.
“The only fight that I wanted to make that was never made was Brock Lesnar vs. Fedor Emelianenko,” White revealed back in 2020. The UFC certainly made their play, however, with a noted failure to negotiate a jump for the Russian MMA star from Strikeforce into the Octagon back in 2011.
With the ‘Last Emperor’ retiring from competition on Saturday night—following a disappointingly foreseeable TKO loss to Ryan Bader—a lot of talk turned to the lasting legacy of one of MMA’s all time great heavyweights.