Fedor vs. Bigfoot: A Test To See Where The Last Emperor Now Stands

Fedor Emelianenko's last fight ended the complete opposite way most fans expected.

The Sambo and Submission expert instead lured himself into a false sense of complete control and trapped himself in a Triangle Armbar from Fabricio Werdum.

Now, he's unquestionably in a boat along with the likes of Mirko Cro Cop and others whose places are questioned in 2010.

After suffering what was technically the first loss of his long and storied career, MMA Junkie reports that he'll hopefully be back sometime in December, and if this is the case, then he'll face the man who recently outpointed Andrei Arlovski, Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva.

Had Werdum been defeated by Fedor, and had a fight with Alistair Overeem been seen as "still too early" for Fedor at the time, a fight with Bigfoot probably still could have happened, although the mystique around Fedor would still exist.

You know, the one that says Bigfoot has no prayer to beat Fedor?

Well, now that everyone feels that anyone can beat anyone in MMA, I can mention that Bigfoot is a Muay Thai and Karate specialist who also carries BJJ skills of his own.

Bigfoot is not only known to knock out his opponents in devastating fashion, but he can also submit guys and he can go the distance with them.

This means Fedor's movements around the cage are going to have to be on a different level than they've been in the past. He's going to have to reinvent his striking game as well as his grappling game, and he's going to have to look like a reinvented Fedor when he faces Bigfoot.

Fedor will certainly go down as one of MMA's All-time best heavyweights, as will the likes of Mirko Filipovic, Randy Couture, Mark Coleman, and Minotauro Nogueira, but he now shares more than the legend status with guys like Filipovic and Nogueira.

Like his two former opponents in PRIDE, the question for Fedor now that he's actually lost a fight is, "Can Fedor Emelianenko evolve with the sport of MMA and defeat the best heavyweights in MMA right now?"

Funny, people asked if Mauricio "Shogun" Rua could hang with the best in the UFC at 205 after he lost his UFC debut to Forrest Griffin, and look what happened to Shogun.

The man beat Lyoto Machida and he's now the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion.

Fedor said it himself after losing to Werdum:

"The man who doesn't fall doesn't stand up."

Undefeated fighters and even technically-undefeated fighters of MMA's past have fallen after suffering their first loss in devastating fashion, and a lot of these formerly undefeated fighters stood themselves back up after winning in impressive fashion in their first fight after suffering a tough loss.

Even some of the sport's most memorable champions have had to stand themselves up after falling from their throne, and some of them have proven that they can still go with some of the best in the sport today.

Don't act surprised if Fedor does the same against Bigfoot this December.