2. Fedor still has zip
It’s hard to know how much blame to put on “Rampage” Jackson as opposed to giving credit to Fedor Emelianenko, but looking at the Russian’s side of things, that was one of his better performances in recent years.
Although the fight lasted less than three minutes, there were some telling moments from Fedor. He was confident, fast and accurate with his striking combinations, mixed in some kicks for the first time in a while, and was very focused on what he needed to execute tactically.
At 43, Emelianenko’s future appears to be these final two fights on Bellator’s “retirement tour.” It should be appreciated that Bellator president Scott Coker is so keen to give the former longtime PRIDE champion a respectful and proper sendoff from the sport, and it appears Emelianenko is taking it seriously.
This is something we should all be able to live with. There’s no reason we need to see Emelianenko fighting for a Bellator title on his way out – and we’ve already seen what Ryan Bader did to him – but he’s clearly still capable of winning. The MMA world should soak in these final moments of his career, because once they’re gone, they won’t return.
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