It was little more than seven months ago that Fedor Emelianenko last competed in the sport he dominated for years. The match only took 69 seconds, but they seemed like the longest in the history of mixed martial arts.
Fabricio Werdum baited the sport’s most mythical character by going down hard from a punch that he now claims barely touched him. In his eagerness to finish the fight, Emelianenko went to the ground after his foe. Werdum immediately clamped on a triangle choke. Watching the replay of the fight, you can see it was only a matter of seconds before Emelianenko tapped. But if you were in San Jose’s HP Pavilion on June 26, you would swear time was standing still.
Considered for so long the best pound-for-pound fighter in mixed martial arts, the Russian veteran had come seconds away from losing on so many occasions – only to reverse position and immediately finish things – that almost nobody could even conceive that he could actually lose.
A contemplative Fedor Emelianenko returns to the cage on Saturday night.(Getty Images)
Almost nobody but the man himself. In MMA’s most stunning moment of 2010, he submitted to Werdum.
“It happened that people made me an idol,” Emelianenko said shortly after his first loss since 2000. “But everybody loses. I’m just a human being. And if it’s God’s will next fight, I’ll win.”
Time hasn’t stood still since, even though at times it seems Emelianenko’s return to competition was taking forever. The usual Emelianenko contract renegotiations – three-way discussions involving M-1 Global, Emelianenko’s promotional arm; Showtime; and Strikeforce – dragged until being finalized at the beginning of the year. His signing coincided with the announcement of the eight-man Strikeforce Grand Prix heavyweight tournament that begins Saturday night and will run through most of the year.
Emelianenko’s quest to regain the aura he had for several years starts at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J. Emelianenko (32-2, one no-contest) faces Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva (15-2) in the three-round main event of an all-heavyweight event on Showtime.
In Silva, Emelianenko faces a man at least four inches taller – and one who will likely go into the cage close to 50 pounds heavier. Silva is a former heavyweight champion in smaller organizations such as Cage Rage and Cage Warriors in the United Kingdom and the defunct Elite XC in the United States.
“Nothing has changed for me,” Emelianenko said about life after being exposed as a human being whose blood is actually red like the rest of us, rather than a cyborg out of a movie. “I train just as I’ve trained before. It just so happens that I had made an error in the previous fight, so in training I have just worked on trying not to make that same mistake again. For me, nothing has changed inside of me, and I still have the same beliefs. I just want to train harder for the next fight.”
Emelianenko’s training is altogether different from that of Silva’s. Silva moved himself and his family from Brazil to the United Kingdom in 2005, and a few years later – after a falling-out with the Wolfslair Team – moved himself and his family to sunny South Florida. There, he joined the American Top Team. He still speaks limited English but works with a slew of world-class fighters, many of them top-level jiu-jitsu black belts. And he’s been formally training in kickboxing over the past three years to add to his skill set.
Emelianenko, on the other hand, has remained in his native Russia, training with old-school methods and with the mentality of making everything as uncomfortable as possible.
“When I train in the mountains in remote areas, I train in the high altitude where it’s very cold, even near freezing,” he said. “It just makes the entire training process that much more difficult, which I believe is beneficial because if I can get through it then, I’ll be that much better for it. Another reason I do it is because nobody bothers me. All I do up there is train, eat and sleep. And all I need to concentrate on is the entire process of my training regimen, without any distractions. I believe that’s what allows me to be in maximum shape leading up to a fight.”
The 6-foot-4 Silva has giant-like proportions far beyond even what his height would indicate. He has a huge head, hands and feet, stemming from having acromegaly, a tumor in his pituitary gland that caused an oversecretion of growth hormone. He had an operation to remove the tumor in 2007 and still takes medication to combat the effects.
With his look, Silva at first glance comes across as one of those giants used a gimmick attraction in major MMA events in Japan who usually don’t have much fighting skill. But Silva has a lifetime of martial arts experience, even if he’s only really been able to put it together completely in recent years. He started karate classes at age 4 and Brazilian jiu-jitsu at 17, and he’s now black-belt level in both sports.
And yet he enters the fight as a 5-to-1 underdog.
“I think everyone would be an underdog fighting Fedor,” Silva said through interpreter and manager Alex Davis as he wound down preparations for the fight. “I like being the underdog; there’s less pressure that way.
“Fedor is a legend and to be a legend, you have to beat a legend,” Silva added. “And I’m ready to be the best heavyweight in the world.”
Silva says there is no favorite in the tournament and that all eight fighters have a shot at winning.
“I’d like to see the whole tournament in one night,” he said. “Then we’d really see who the best man was.”
Silva’s two losses have come via decision to Werdum and via ref stoppage to 310-pound Samoan Eric Pele.
“The first one [to Pele] was not a real loss,” he said. “It was an early stoppage in a fight I was winning and I would have come back in.”
Silva appeared to be hurt worse against Mike Kyle in his most recent fight. He was knocked down and was dominated for the entire first round before turning the tables and pounding Kyle out in the second round.
Silva’s other loss – via decision in the match that led to Werdum getting the bout with Emelianenko – was a fight in which he won the first round but got tired faster and lost rounds two and three. He said that loss made him better because it forced him to make sure to be in condition for the full 15 minutes.
If Silva is to score the upset over Emelianenko, he could get a chance to avenge that loss to Werdum – provided Werdum beats Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem on April 9. But it’s neither a goal of his nor something he’s looking forward to.
“[Werdum’s] my friend,” Silva said. “I don’t want to fight him. If I have to fight him, I will, but he will still be my friend – and after the fight, we’ll go out and have coffee together.”