Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix - Fedor Emelianenko

On January 26th, at The Forum in Inglewood, California, MMA stars Fedor Emelianenko (38-5) and Ryan Bader (26-5) will conclude Bellator’s Heavyweight Grand Prix, and fight each other in the finals for the vacant Bellator Heavyweight championship.  

Fedor Emelianenko

Fedor was born on September 28, 1976 in Rubizhne, Ukraine.  He is known as one of the greatest mixed martial arts fighters in history, as he was the Pride Fighting Championships heavyweight champion from 2003 to 2007.  He was also the FIAS World Combat Sambo Heavyweight Champion in 2002, 2005, 2007, and a Bronze Medalist at the Russian Judo Federation National Championship in 1998 and 1999.

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He currently compete for Bellator MMA and Rizin Fighting Federation in Japan.  He began his MMA on May 21, 2000 with a win over Martin Lazarov by guillotine choke in Rings: Russia event.  He then went on to win 3 more bouts in Rings, including a unanimous decision win over submission grappling and mma legend Ricardo Arona.  In his fifth bout, he lost a controversial loss to Tsuyoshi Kohsaka on December 22, 2000. However, following this loss, he would win his next 28 fights, including wins over four former UFC champions, one Pride FC champion, one former and two future K-1 Champions, and two Olympic medalists.  During this ten year undefeated period (from December 2000 until June 26, 2010), he would also defeat eleven top-10 ranked fighters and avenge his loss in a rematch to Kohsaka. His stunning unbeaten record came to an end on June 26, 2010, when he lost to Fabricio Werdum by submission via triangle armbar at Strikeforce: Fedor versus Werdum in San Jose, California.

Background

Fedor began his martial arts training by first training in Sambo and Judo as a youth under coach Vasiliy Ivanovich Gavrilov and later under one of his current coaches Vladimir Voronov.  Fedor graduated from high school in 1991, and then graduated with honors from a professional trade school in 1994. From 1995 to 1997, he served in the Russian Army as a military firefighter.  During this time, he would continue to train- winning the bronze medal at the Russian Judo Federation National Championship. However, in 2000, citing that he needed to earn more money, Fedor had his sights on training and competing in Mixed Martial Arts.  He joined the Russian Top Team (RTT) mma team, and trained with Russian MMA legends such as Volk Han and Andrey Kopylov. He trained there for 3 years, until he and his brother, Alexander Emelianenko, moved their training to Saint Petersburg with the Red Devil Sport Club, managed by Vadim Finkelchtein.  Vadim would serve as Fedor's manager up until his first retirement in mid 2012.

MMA  Accolades:

Fedor has won significant awards and accolades in his 19 year professional MMA career, including:

PRIDE Heavyweight Championship

PRIDE 2004 Heavyweight World Grand Prix Champion

RINGS 2001 Absolute Class Tournament Winner

RINGS 2001 Openweight Title Tournament Winner

WAMMA (World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts) Heavyweight Championship

Nikkan Sports: 2012 Mixed Martial Arts MVP

Sports Illustrated: 2000s Fighter of the Decade

MMAFighting.com: 2000s Fighter of the Decade

FIGHT! Magazine: 2000s Fighter of the Decade

Fedor's MMA Career:

Res. Opponent Method Date

Win Chael Sonnen TKO 13-Oct-18

Win Frank Mir TKO 28-Apr-18

Loss Matt Mitrione KO (punches) 24-Jun-17

Win Fábio Maldonado Decision (majority) 17-Jun-16

Win Singh Jaideep TKO 31-Dec-15

Win Pedro Rizzo KO (punches) 21-Jun-12

Win Satoshi Ishii KO (punches) 31-Dec-11

Win Jeff Monson Decision (unanimous) 20-Nov-11

Loss Dan Henderson TKO 30-Jul-11

Loss Antônio Silva TKO 12-Feb-11

Loss Fabrício Werdum Submission 26-Jun-10

Win Brett Rogers TKO 7-Nov-09

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Win Andrei Arlovski KO (punch) 24-Jan-09

Win Tim Sylvia Submission 19-Jul-08

Win Choi Hong-man Submission 31-Dec-07

Win Matt Lindland Submission 14-Apr-07

Win Mark Hunt Submission 31-Dec-06

Win Mark Coleman Submission 21-Oct-06

Win Zuluzinho TKO 31-Dec-05

Win Mirko Cro Cop Decision (unanimous) 28-Aug-05

Win Tsuyoshi Kohsaka TKO 3-Apr-05

Win Antônio Nogueira Decision (unanimous) 31-Dec-04

NC Antônio  Nogueira No Contest 15-Aug-04

Win Naoya Ogawa Submission 0:54

Win Kevin Randleman Submission 20-Jun-04

Win Mark Coleman Submission 25-Apr-04

Win Yuji Nagata TKO 31-Dec-03

Win Gary Goodridge TKO 10-Aug-03

Win Kazuyuki Fujita ubmission 8-Jun-03

Win Egidijus Valavicius Submission 5-Apr-03

Win Antônio Nogueira Decision (unanimous) 16-Mar-03

Win Heath Herring TKO 24-Nov-02

Win Semmy Schilt Decision (unanimous) 23-Jun-02

Win Chris Haseman TKO 15-Feb-02

Win Lee Hasdell Submission 21-Dec-01

Win Ryushi Yanagisawa Decision (unanimous) 20-Oct-01

Win Renato Sobral Decision (unanimous) 11-Aug-01

Win Kerry Schall Submission 20-Apr-01

Win Mihail Apostolov Submission 6-Apr-01

Loss Tsuyoshi Kohsaka TKO 22-Dec-00

Win Ricardo Arona Decision (unanimous) 22-Dec-00

Win Hiroya Takada KO (punches) 5-Sep-00

Win Levon Lagvilava Submission 16-Aug-00

Win Martin Lazarov Submission 21-May-00

Win Martin Lazarov Submission 21-May-00

Full Bellator 214 line up:

In addition to the exciting finale of the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix, there are numerous exciting fights on the January 26th Bellator 214 card.  

Fedor Emelianenko (38-5, 1 NC) vs. Ryan Bader (26-5)

Aaron Pico (4-1) vs. Henry Corrales (16-3)

Jake Hager (0-0) vs. J.W. Kiser (1-1)

Juan Archuleta (21-1) vs. Ricky Bandejas (11-1)

Brandon McMahan (5-6) vs. Adel Altamimi (7-5)

A.J. Agazarm (0-0) vs. Jesse Roberts (0-0)

Chris Gonzalez (1-0) vs. Henry Mendez (0-1)

Weber Almeida (1-0) vs. Odan Chinchilla (1-0)

Jay-Jay Wilson (1-0) vs. Tyler Beneke (0-0)

Sean Johnson (3-1) vs. Arturo Rivas (5-2)

Jorge Juarez (3-0) vs. David Pacheco (0-0)

Jesse Merritt (5-4) vs. Thor Skancke (10-8-1)

Osman Diaz (2-1) vs. Christopher Reyes (0-0)

James Barnes (11-3) vs. Ryan Lilley (9-4)

Ian Butler (4-5, 1 NC) vs. Craig Plaskett (3-3)

Steve Ramirez (6-3) vs. Desmond Torres (5-1)

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