Fedor Emelianenko reportedly considering retirement
Fedor Emelianenko, known simply as Fedor, appears to have posted a statement on mixfight.ru in which he says he may be retiring after his next fight, the last on his Strikeforce contract.
“My next fight will be last on the Strikeforce contract. I'm yet to decide whether I'm going to continue my fighting career after this contract expires,” Fedor wrote in a post translated by lowkick.com.
Fedor is almost universally considered to be the greatest heavyweight mixed martial artist of all time. He dominated the heavyweight division’s number one ranking from 2002-2010, with a career record of 32-2-1.
He was largely considered undefeated (his first loss having been a technicality) until this year, when he was dethroned by Fabricio Werdum in a shock submission upset.
Since then he’s been jockeying to fight Werdum in a rematch, or to take on current Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem, but the two haven’t been able to come to terms, with various issues such
as steroid testing coming into play.
“Right now, Strikeforce are struggling to find me a serious opponent. Alistair Overeem keeps finding all sorts of excuses not to fight me,” said Fedor, noting that Werdum, who has stated a desire to fight
the 34-year-old Russian again, is injured and recovering from surgery, so he isn’t a viable candidate.
Fedor, a hero in his home country of Russia, wrote if he stops fighting a political career might be in the future.
“Also, my candidacy nominated for the Post of Deputy in Belgorod Regional Duma, and if I'm elected, I think, will defend the interests of the people and try to do my best efforts for the development of sport.
But again, I think it's too early to talk about it. I have to finalize the contract and prepare for my last bout.”
Despite all this, such reports should often be taken with a grain of salt, as similar statements have come out in the past, and have turned out to be hoaxes.
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