Former Pride heavyweight champion- Fedor Emelianenko, considered by many to be the greatest heavyweight of all time has only 1 fight left on his Bellator contract and is looking to retire. And he has an idea in mind for his retirement fight, a Ryan Bader rematch. Bellator President Scott Coker spoke on this and said the following
“I’ll tell you that’s a fight Fedor really wants,” Coker told MMA Junkie and other reporters. “We’ve had that conversation. This is his last fight on his contract. He told me he wants to retire. I haven’t talked to Bader about it. It’s something, that, it’s hard to say no to Fedor. Let’s put it that way. We’ll definitely consider it. It’s definitely not inked or something that is imminent. But definitely, we’ll have that conversation.”
The two first met in Bellator’s heavyweight title tournament in the finale- Bader KOed fedor in only 35 seconds. Since then Fedor has went 2-0 with 2 huge Knockouts in round 1, and Bader has had 3 wins in his last 6 fights, with two of those being KO losses. One to fedor protege- Vadim Nemkov. However he did pick up a win over another fedor protege in Valentin Moldavsky in a controversial decision.
A rematch makes sense, Fedor’s last win was against the number 2 heavyweight in the Bellator rankings at the time- Tim Johnson. The only two men ranked higher were Champion- Bader and Interim Champion- Moldavsky, who fedor wouldn’t fight. That could easily put Fedor next in line.
However with the quick finish Ryan Bader doesn’t seem so Keen on the idea. “I get it,” Bader said. “I ended up knocking him out in 35 seconds, and I can see how he wouldn’t want to go out like that and want a rematch. I’m open to it, but I haven’t really thought about it too much.”
Understandable, it’s unlikely he’s going to win in any more impressive fashion than last time, and if he loses he won’t get a rematch most likely as Fedor is planning to retire. But, being the man only man To beat Fedor twice, and both being title fights, and retiring Fedor would indeed be a nice feather in anyone’s cap.
It’s not a done deal, but Scott Coker is certainly interested