Six years ago, Fedor Emelianenko was done, retiring after most of us knew it was time. After a career that had spanned a dozen years of greatness, that had seen him run through the largest and scariest men in mixed martial arts, often with barely a speck of trouble, Emelianenko was suddenly compromised, human, fallible. Time happens. He lost three fights in a row, then went on a three-fight victory tour of recognizable but past-their-prime opponents, then faded off into retirement.
The fight world exhaled. The end does not come quietly for most anyone, not in this sport, not even when you are one of the greatest to ever do it.