The Emperor’s Reign: 10 Career Defining Moments of Fedor Emelianenko

This is not the first time I've written this introduction.

After typing out a description of Fedor Emelianenko in a few paragraphs—giving examples of his heavyweight dominance and explaining the reason that he is legitimately undefeated in a career spanning over 10 years—I apparently forgot to click save and somehow my work was gone.

Way to go, genius!

As I sit here staring at a blank screen, I find myself racking my brain trying to think of the exact words I had forced out earlier today.

This is not good journalism.

I'm reminded of one of my favorite books, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," in which the author implores the reader, among other things, to enjoy the action of a task, not just frustratingly working towards the result.

Am I forcing out another Fedor article? Am I enjoying the act of reviewing the life's work of a man that has never been matched in his field?

Fedor is a man of many faces, despite his consistent tranquil, blank expression.

There is no fighter in the sport of MMA like Fedor. Frankly, there is no one like him in any sport.

His detractors can debate his place among the greatest fighters of all time, but they cannot argue that he is as polarizing and unique a character as any in MMA.

Do I really enjoy the act of writing if I am dreading writing (rewriting, to be fair) about one of the most interesting personalities in the last 20 years of sports?

Okay, this rewrite is a blessing in disguise.

Let's review the career that I found so thrilling in real time. Let's illustrate the differences between Emelianenko and every other fighter in this sport.

Let's try to get through to his detractors and show that he really is the greatest mixed martial artist of all time.

Zen and the Art of Fedor.

RINGS Championships Wins

Emelianenko made his MMA debut with the Japanese RINGS promotion.

Despite one of his biggest strengths—punches to the head of a downed opponent—being illegal in RINGS, Fedor still prospered in the organization.

After going 3-0 in RINGS, with each of the fights ending in the first round, Fedor participated in the King of Kings tournament in 2000.

After winning a very close decision over Ricardo Arona in the first round of the tournament, Fedor was matched with Tsuyoshi “TK” Kohsaka. After just 17 seconds, the bout was waived off due to a large gash over Fedor's eye. The cut was revealed to be from an illegal elbow strike, but due to the tournament rules, Kohsaka was deemed the winner so that he could move forward in the bracket.

This remains the only loss in Fedor's career, prompting many MMA fans to consider him undefeated.

The tournament was eventually won by Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

In 2001, Fedor entered the RINGS Heavyweight Class Tournament.

After quickly submitting Kerry Schall and then winning a decision over Renato “Babalu” Sobral, Fedor was in the finals of the tournament.

In the finals, Fedor was set to meet Bobby Hoffman, but Hoffman refused to fight, claiming he had suffered an injury in his previous fight that same night.

Fedor was awarded the RINGS Heavyweight Class Championship.

In 2002, Fedor entered the RINGS Absolute Class Tournament. After wins against Ryushi Yanagisawa and Lee Hasdell, Fedor met Chris Hasemen in the finals.

Emelianenko stopped Hasemen by TKO in less than three minutes, and was declared the tournament champion.

It was the last tournament RINGS ever held.

First Sambo Championship Win

Sambo is an acronym for SAMozashchita Bez Oruzhiya which means "self-defense without weapons."

In Russia, it is a martial art and combat sport.

It was developed in 1923 by the Soviet Red Army to improve their hand-to-hand combat systems. It is a combination of effective techniques from other martial arts, closely resembling Mixed Martial Arts of today.

Every year there is a tournament called the World Sambo Championships, in which participants representing countries all over the globe compete to be world champion.

Fedor had already won the Russian and European championships, but in 2002 he won both the heavyweight and open weight World Sambo Championship.

The wins were an enormous boost to the notoriety of Fedor in his home country of Russia.

As journalist Pavel Lysenkov of Sovietsky Sport, Russia's premier sports newspaper, stated, "Emelianenko is a huge star on par with (Maria) Sharapova and (Alexander) Ovechkin."

Much of his homeland fame is due to his Sambo victories.

He went on to win the World Sambo Championship in 2005 and again in 2007.

No. 1 Contender Heath Herring's Destruction

2002 was a triumphant year for Emelianenko.

After winning the last RINGS tournament, and winning two gold medals at the World Sambo Championship, Fedor made his debut in Pride Fighting Championships.

In his debut, Fedor took on 6'11" Dutch striker Semmy Schilt, winning by unanimous decision in a fight he controlled for its duration.

The win earned him a shot at becoming the No. 1 contender in Pride's heavyweight division against Heath Herring.

Emelianenko, considered an underdog in the match, delivered a ferocious and brutal beating to Herring throughout the first round, landing some of the hardest punches ever seen on the ground.

A bloody and swollen Herring was forced to quit in his corner before the start of the second round.

If you didn't know about Fedor yet, you did now.

Herring had been considered a top heavyweight, taking champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira to the final bell just a year before. He had never been beaten like this.

Fedor was now the No. 1 contender and had earned his shot at the Pride heavyweight title held by Nogueira.

Pride Heavyweight Championship Win

In 2003 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira was widely considered unbeatable.

His prior wins over Mark Coleman, Heath Herring and Bob Sapp, combined with his fortitude and stellar submission game, made Nogueira a heavy favorite against any fighter.

Emelianenko was no exception.

Nogueira was also the winner of the RINGS King of Kings Tournament, in which Fedor had also competed.

After tasting the power of Emelianenko early in the fight, Nogueira pulled guard. Nogueira's guard was notorious for being the most dangerous in MMA. The rest of the match was fought in this position.

For twenty minutes, Fedor was able to escape every submission attempt from Nogueira, and continually land his devastating trademark punches from the top. At no point was Fedor ever in any danger, and he easily controlled the fight for a unanimous decision win.

Fedor had beaten the unbeatable Nogueira, and was now the Pride Heavyweight Champion, a title he would never lose.

It was a shocking performance that gave Fedor his present title of No. 1 heavyweight in the world.

Proving His Mettle Against Fujita

Less than a month after winning the Pride heavyweight title, Emelianenko traveled to Lithuania to easily submit Egidijus Valavicius in the RINGS promotion.

Two months after that, Fedor began his Pride Fighting Championships title reign. First up for the new champion was Japanese fan-favorite Kazuyuki Fujita.

Fujita was a former amateur and professional wrestler—at one time holding the IWGP Heavyweight title—with previous wins over Mark Kerr, Ken Shamrock, and Gilbert Yvel.

Fujita was popular, strong, extremely durable, and figured by many to have no chance of competing with Fedor.

After about two minutes of Fedor taking his time and landing a handful of hard punches, Fujita loaded up and threw a looping counter-right hand that landed square on Fedor's ear. Immediately wobbled, Fedor began grabbing at the air in an attempt to get a hold of Fujita—he looked like a man walking on stilts.

As soon as Fedor latched on to Fujita, he was taken down but managed to pull guard. Despite Fujita landing a few minor shots on the ground, Fedor was beginning to recover.

After a brief struggle for control, Fedor got back to his feet. Badly cut on his right eye, it was clear that he was all business from there on.

Just thirty seconds after getting to his feet, Emelianenko landed a devastating combination of a left body kick, a left hook, and a right cross to drop Fujita. Fedor quickly followed him to the ground and latched on a modified rear-naked choke (sometimes called a serial killer choke), forcing Fujita to tap out.

It was the first and only time Fedor was truly dazed by a punch, and it proved he had the heart and character of a fighter to recover from such a damaging blow.

Later in 2009, Fedor stated, "Fujita is the only one who ever hit me right, and he hit hard!"

PRIDE Heavyweight Grand Prix Win

After an easy first-round blowout of Gary Goodridge, Fedor took on Yugi Nagata at Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2003 on the same night as Pride Shockwave 2003. Fedor quickly finished Nagata by TKO in the first round.

Fedor fought on Inoki's event instead of Pride's because of a larger purse being offered due to major competition between the Japanese television networks that broadcast the fights.

The decision upset the management of Pride, prompting them to create an interim heavyweight title, pitting Nogueira and Mirko Cro Cop to compete for it.

After taking a severe beating at the hands of Cro Cop throughout the first round, Nogueira persevered and secured an arm bar early in the second round, forcing Cro Cop to surrender. Nogueira was now the interim champ.

In 2004, Pride began their Heavyweight Grand Prix.

Four months after his destruction of Nagata, Fedor returned to Pride as a participant in the heavyweight tournament.

Leading up to the finals, Fedor submitted Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman, and Naoya Ogawa in a combined time of less than five minutes. In his match against Randleman, Fedor was lifted high in the air and slammed onto his head in one of the most eye-catching highlights in MMA history.

Because of his experience in Sambo, Fedor knew how to land with his head tucked and his body relaxed, and quickly came back from the slam to submit Randleman.

In the finals, Fedor met interim titlist Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Disappointingly, the fight was called to a halt when Fedor suffered a huge gash on his forehead due to an accidental clash of heads, and the bout was declared a no contest.

It was an anti-climactic end to a great night of fights.

The finals were eventually rescheduled for Shockwave 2004, and the two would not only settle the score of tournament winner, but also unify their heavyweight titles.

After two previous fights between them, most figured the third would look similar in strategy. This was not the case as Fedor showed his superior speed and boxing ability—constantly combining hard shots to the face of Nogueira with throws and take downs.

The fight may have looked different than the first, but it was every bit as dominant. Fedor won a shut-out unanimous decision over the brave Nogueira, and was now the Pride Heavyweight Grand Prix winner.

Revenge

Just three months after his title-unifying win against Nogueira, Fedor returned to the Pride ring at Pride Bushido 6.

After winning the Heavyweight Grand Prix, his stock could not have been higher. But there was still the lone blemish on his record to be taken care of.

Tsuyoshi Kohsaka was coming off of three consecutive wins over Sumiyabazar Dolgorsuren, Ricardo Morais, and Ron Waterman. Though he would be a massive underdog against Fedor, the fight had purpose.

Early in the fight, Kohsaka shot in for a take down but Fedor was able to stuff it and reverse Kohsaka onto his back. Immediately Fedor began firing punches and hammer fists, finishing the flurry with a head stomp.

Less than a minute into the fight, the ref called a timeout to check the eyebrows of Kohsaka that were already gushing blood. After a minute of inspection, the fight resumed and it was more of the same.

After ten minutes of Kohsaka taking extreme punishment on his back with his face dripping blood, the bout was stopped and Fedor was awarded a TKO victory.

While the fight wasn't particularly exciting and was extremely one-sided, it was now official that Fedor had beaten every man that had dared to step in the ring with him.

Now that the past was taken care of, there was a long-looming match with a deadly Croatian kick-boxer that had fans clamoring.

The Defeat of No. 1 Contender Mirko Cro Cop

Pride had tried to match Mirko Cro Cop with Emelianenko multiple times since 2003, but something had always gotten in the way.

First it was a hand injury, then it was a contract dispute, then Mirko lost his shot at the interim title to Nogueira.

In 2004 Mirko and Fedor were placed on opposite sides of the Pride Heavyweight Grand Prix bracket in hopes of the two finally meeting in the finals.

In one of the biggest upsets in Pride history, Mirko was knocked out by Kevin Randleman in the first round of the tournament, early in the fight.

The fight was put on hold, as Mirko had a lot of work to do if he wanted to ever get his shot at the champion.

Mirko had never hidden his desire to face Fedor. He publicly asked for the fight on many occasions, and he was not alone in his quest. The fans endlessly debated who would prevail in this dream match, and the longer it took, the bigger it got.

After the shocking loss to Randleman, Mirko put together seven consecutive wins over the likes of Alexander Emelianenko (brother of Fedor), Josh Barnett, Mark Coleman, and Kevin Randleman.

After Mirko's demolition of Ibragim Magomedov, a training partner of Fedor, both Mirko and Fedor met in the ring to officially announce their long awaited showdown. It would take place at Pride Final Conflict 2005.

Less than four months after Fedor's revenge on Kohsaka, the two met in arguably the most highly anticipated fight in Pride Fighting Championship's history.

In the first round Mirko landed some hard shots on Fedor and broke his nose with a couple of stiff jabs. Bruising was also evident on Fedor's ribs from the powerful body kicks of Mirko.

Emelianenko then got the fight to the ground and began pounding on the face and midsection of Cro Cop. As the fight progressed, it was clear that Mirko was slowing and Fedor began to win the stand-up exchanges, along with scoring numerous take-downs.

The beginning of the third round was a particularly impressive combination of punches from Emelianenko.

After going the full 20 minutes, Fedor was declared the winner by unanimous decision. He had faced adversity, and yet again, fought through it to remain champion.

It was another masterful and dramatic performance from Emelianenko.

Ventures In America

Fedor followed his outstanding win over Cro Cop with three more victories in Pride over Zuluzinho, Mark Coleman, and Mark Hunt.

However, the Pride promotion was going downhill, and quickly.

In 2006, Fuji Network announced that they were terminating their television contract with Pride due to breach of contract. The loss of revenue from the Fuji deal imperiled the future of Pride FC.

Also, rumors began to swirl that Dream Stage Entertainment (the Japanese company that promotes Pride) was actually a front for the Yamaguchi-gumi, an infamous yakuza crime organization.

In 2007, Lorenzo Fertitta, co-owner of Zuffa and its subsidiary MMA promotion UFC, made a deal to purchase all assets of Pride FC from DSE.

Originally, Fertitta planned to run Pride separately from the UFC, but those plans were quickly abandoned and Pride was dissolved with many of its fighters moving to the UFC.

Fedor was one of the few big names from Pride that could not come to terms with the UFC, and was the hottest free agent in the sport.

After two first-round arm bar submissions over Matt Lindland and Hong-Man Choi, Fedor signed a deal to fight under new upstart promotion Affliction's banner.

In their first event, Fedor was scheduled to face former two-time UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia.

Though Emelianenko's second fight with Mark Coleman took place in Las Vegas under the Pride promotion, this was his official “coming to America.”

It was the start of a new phase in the Russian's career. Pride was gone and it was time to garner a new fanbase in a new country.

Many MMA fans had big hopes for Affliction, and the first event did not disappoint.

Fighting for the newly created WAMMA heavyweight title (World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts), Fedor went after Sylvia quickly with a barrage of punches, dropping Sylvia to the ground and finishing him with a serial killer choke. The bout was stopped at 36 seconds into the first round, without Sylvia ever connecting with a single strike.

Fedor had landed on U.S. soil and made a statement. A whole new audience got to see the breathtaking aggression and ability of Emelianenko.

Also in 2008, Emelianenko had the privilege of carrying the Olympic torch in St. Petersburg.

In an interview with the Korean MMA site Mfight, Fedor stated he was “very happy and proud” to carry the torch.

The duty was another testament to how special of an athlete Fedor really is. No other MMA fighter has ever been appointed to such a role.

Strikeforce Signing

Affliction went on to hold one more event before collapsing and giving up on MMA promotion. In the second event Fedor scored a first-round knockout of former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski.

The knockout was named knockout of the year by Sherdog.com.

After the demise of Affliction, much speculation was placed on whether Fedor would finally fight in the UFC.

After months of negotiations, Emelianenko signed with budding MMA promotion Strikeforce.

The main deciding factor was that Fedor wanted the UFC to cross-promote his fights with his company M-1 Global. The UFC refused, Strikeforce did not, so Fedor signed with Strikeforce.

It is rumored that the UFC offered Fedor the largest figure for any fighter in the promotion's history.

In Fedor's Strikeforce debut, he was pitted against fellow Arlovski conqueror and undefeated contender, Brett Rogers.

Fedor was out-weighed by over 32 pounds come fight night.

After a very competitive first-round that saw both fighters take turns on the offensive, Fedor's nose was leaking blood and his left hand was injured.

In the second round Fedor loaded up on one of his famous right hands and dropped Rogers to the mat. After two more shots on the ground, the bout was called off.

It was another knockout on American soil for Fedor—another display of a fighter that will never be matched.

Next up: Fedor vs. Werdum

On June 26, Fedor will take on former Pride and UFC standout Fabricio Werdum.

Despite the criticism of some, Werdum is a more than capable challenger and even holds a win over the present Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem.

Fedor will attempt to keep his unthinkable winning streak alive, and possibly convince the American MMA audience that he is the best heavyweight in the world — and has been since 2003.