Fedor Emelianenko gives details on Bellator return: ‘I’m ready to fight’

Earlier today, Fedor Emelianenko sat down with the Bellator panel to announce he will be returning to action soon enough. A man of few words Fedor, with the help of his translator, got down to it (via Sherdog).

“I feel great and I am ready to fight.”

Scott Coker provided details of Fedor’s return to the sport:

“He fights October 23rd, at the VTB arena in Moscow, Russia and it’ll be the inaugural Bellator event led by Fedor….there in Moscow.”

“The Last Emperor” is MMA royalty, never removed from the GOAT conversation and has a massive fan following the world over, but especially in his home country of Russia. It is an interesting move to get a foothold in the Russian market. There were talks of Khabib Nurmagomedov versus Conor McGregor in Russia but it never came about. Now Bellator are looking to get in ahead of their flagship competitor. It has been a pipe dream of Bellator president Scott Coker to hold an event there and now he dreams have come true.

Fedor has not stepped into the round cage since 2019, but he had this to say about his condition:

“I’m feeling great, physically and mentally. I’m ready to fight. I’m still training with the younger guys and I’m very excited and I’m back in shape to see where it brings me.”

The venue and the date are set, but for the moment Fedor is without an opponent. Scott Coker gave a vague answer about the opponent, and that it it still early days and they do not have a name.

“(…) we are going through the process of working out the opponent still. We have had a lot of offers…you can imagine all the names that have popped up but we still have to talk about it and its the one thing we have to figure out.”