Fedor Emelianenko and the 5 Fights for the Greatest of All Time

Talks are now starting to heat up about who Fedor Emelianenko will face next. With his next fight scheduled in July, his opponent will be named soon enough.

Now, there are some ideal fights for Fedor and some outrageous UFC super-fights that won't happen until Strikeforce and the UFC merge.

With three fights left on his contract, who should the "Last Emperor" face? What fights would be ideal for the former Pride champion?

Here they are—five fights for Fedor. 

Shane Del Rosario

Age: 27 years old

Record: 11-0-0 

Height: 6 foot 4 inches (1.93 meters)

Weight: 240 pounds (108 kg)

Reach: 79 inches (200 cm)

Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Reserve

Shane Del Rosario has shot off to an incredible start to his MMA career, boasting a perfect 11-0 mark. On the same night Fedor suffered his second consecutive loss, Del Rosario came in and beat Lavar Johnson to qualify as a reserve for the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Tournament.

Del Rosario has already come out saying he would allow Fedor to take his spot in the heavyweight tournament. It would be one way for Fedor to get back into the tournament.

The other way would be fighting the young heavyweight in the cage. It would be a great redemption fight for the greatest fighter in MMA history and a great way to get himself back into the tournament from which he was just knocked out.

It wouldn't be an easy fight for Fedor. Del Rosario carries a powerful stand-up game because of his kickboxing background. Eight of his 11 wins have come via knockout. If Fedor could take the hits and survive Del Rosario's flurries of kicks and punches, he could surely walk away with a redeeming win.

Andrei Arlovski

Age: 32 years old

Record: 15-9-0

Height: 6 foot 4 inches (1.93 meters)

Weight: 242 pounds (110 kg)

Reach: 77 inches (196 cm)

Eliminated in First Round of Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix by Sergei Kharitonov

These two fighters have already faced off once before at Affliction: Day of Reckoning in 2009. That fight ended quickly in the first round when Fedor connected with Andrei Arlovski's face and sent him down for the count.

That loss began a string of losses for Arlovski, most notably by knockout. Now, he has suffered four-straight losses and his career has seemingly been thrown up in the air.

This would be a good redeeming fight for both fighters, with both on serious losing streaks. They both are on the back ends of their respective careers. Arlovski is someone who doesn't outsize Fedor by too much like he has been in his past fights, and it's someone Fedor has beaten.

It would be a perfect rebound fight for Fedor. 

Chad Griggs

Age: 32 years old

Record: 11-1-0

Height: 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 meters)

Weight: 229 pounds (104 kg)

Reach: 73 inches (190 cm)

Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Reserve

Chad Griggs would be a nice opponent for Fedor. Like Del Rosario, beating Griggs could offer him a way back into the tournament. Griggs is coming off two impressive victories in Strikeforce, proving the strength of outrageous sideburns.

At Strikeforce: Houston back in August of 2010, Griggs beat Strikeforce fighter Bobby Lashley. Lashley was 5-0 until that fight and Griggs won by TKO when Lashley was unable to continue after the second round. He then went on to beat Gianpiero Villante by TKO in February in a nice display of stand-up fighting.

As sloppy as it was, he could give Fedor a nice little fight, although it would be a completely uphill battle for Griggs. Griggs is the ideal size for a Fedor opponent right now.

Rafael Cavalcante

Age: 30 years old

Record: 10-3-0

Height: 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 meters)

Weight: 205 pounds (93 kg)

Reach: N/A 

Former Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion

Rafael Cavalcante offers a nice introduction to the light heavyweight division for Fedor. There has been a lot of talk about Fedor being too small to fight at the heavyweight level, and that he would be better off fighting at light heavyweight.

Cavalcante offers a nice segue into that division. Not only that, he offers a big-name victory at light heavyweight for Fedor and gets him one step closer to dethroning current Strikeforce light heavyweight champion, Dan Henderson.

It could be a tough fight for the "Last Emperor" but with Cavalcante also coming off of a loss, it would be a nice win for Fedor. 

Dan Henderson

Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images

LAS VEGAS - JULY 11: (R-L) Dan Henderson connects with a right to Mike Bisping during their middleweight bout during UFC 100 on July 11, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images)

Age: 40 years old

Record: 27-8-0

Height: 5 feet 11 inches (1.8 meters)

Weight: 205 pounds (93 kg)

Reach: 74 inches (188 cm) 

Current Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion

Dan Henderson finally took home a belt after his TKO victory over Rafael Cavalcante. It was his fourth title fight since he won the Pride Middleweight championship, as he had lost his previous three bouts.

Fedor himself is a former Pride champion and it would be a great matchup between the two Pride legends. There are already rumors of this super-fight that have been repeatedly shot down by Fedor's management team at M-1 Global.

Why fight Cavalcante when you can skip right to the head of the line? Strikeforce will get what they want if Fedor wins—their biggest draw and investment becoming a champion of one of their divisions.

Henderson offers a nice opponent for Fedor. Both are old in age, around the same size and offer a great kind of Cold War-esque fight—Henderson the American champion versus Emelianenko, the Russian hero.

Henderson even told MMAFighting.com that "I would love to have that chance to fight Fedor. I think that would be the ultimate challenge, and that's what excites me."

A tough challenge indeed for Henderson.