“Average at Best” -Daniel Cormier Doesn’t Consider Fedor Emelianenko as the Greatest Heavyweight of All Time

Fedor Emelianenko is one of the best MMA fighters known. He has never fought under one of the best MMA promotions, UFC, due to disagreements. He had been absent from MMA for almost 2 years and has now decided to return to the cage. At Bellator 269, he will face Tim Johnson.

His last fight was against Rampage at Bellator 237. He knocked out Rampage in just the first round. 

Emelianenko had gone for almost 10 years without a loss and can proudly boast of a 27-fight win streak. This great streak ended when he lost to Fabricio Werdum in 2010. He has fought under several promotions like RINGS, BodogFIGHT, PRIDE, DREAM, Affliction, Yarrenoka, and Strikeforce.

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‘The Last Emperor’ is considered to be the ‘Greatest Heavyweight of All Time’. However, since he has not fought for UFC, this is up for debate.  

Daniel Cormier on Fedor Emelianenko

Daniel Cormier believes that Emelianenko wouldn’t have done great at UFC. To prove his point, Cormier gives an example of Emelianenko’s fight with Brett Rogers. Rogers was a tire employee at Walmart and could only punch well. He was perhaps only in it for the money and wasn’t a good fighter, according to Cormier.

Cormier said, “The story was that Brett Rogers was a Walmart tire employee, and he had done so well because he can punch so well, but we’re talking about a guy that worked at the tire shop at Walmart. He made $100,000, his wife wanted to be a rapper, he got beat by Fedor and the faded into the background. So how are you going to tell me that leads you to believe that at that point in time he could compete with guys like Cain Velasquez, Junior dos Santos, and you can’t say (Fabricio) Werdum because Werdum beat him when they fought very recently after that?”

Cormier continued, “He [Emelianenko] would have struggled with guys like Cheick Kongo. He was not beating those guys that were at the top of the UFC at that time.”

Cormier also said, “For as great as he is, he would have been, at that time in the sport, average at best.”

After his loss against Werdum, Emelianenko lost two more fights to Antonio Silva and Dan Henderson. In 2012, he retired. However, he returned in 2015.

Post his last fight in 2019, Emelianenko will fight at Bellator 269 against Tim Johnson. Whom are you rooting for in this fight? Let us know in the comments below. 

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