Bellator has scrapped plans to have Fedor Emelianenko fight in Moscow.
Emelianenko is currently in the midst of his “retirement tour.” It’ll reach its end with Fedor’s next fight. “The Last Emperor” has said there’s no guarantee he will retire once the tour has wrapped up.
There were plans in place for Fedor to have his final fight of the tour in Moscow. With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ongoing, things have changed.
Moscow Trip For Fedor Emelianenko Axed
Following the Bellator 276 event, the promotion’s president Scott Coker gave an update on the planned retirement fight for Fedor Emelianenko. He revealed that initial plans were in place to have the fight be held in Moscow (h/t MMAJunkie).
“It’s definitely not going to happen in Moscow this year. We’re not going to do Fedor’s retirement fight there for obvious reasons. We will be looking for an alternative site at some point.
“We had an amazing show planned in Moscow. I don’t even mind telling you guys this, but we originally had approval to do the fight in Red Square, and it was going to be just a great sendoff for the G.O.A.T., in my opinion. But now we have to pivot and create something else that’s great and find another venue and find another amazing site, because he deserves to have a great sendoff. We just don’t know exactly where yet.”
Fedor’s last fight took place in Moscow. He went one-on-one with Timothy Johnson inside VTB Arena. Emelianenko scored a first-round knockout victory. Fedor is 2-0 on this tour, which began back in late 2019. Emelianenko stopped Quinton “Rampage” Jackson via first-round TKO in Saitama, Japan.
