Fedor Emelianenko was expected to be matched up against Junior Dos Santos in his next outing.
Former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov has been working hard in his new role as the stateside promoter for his own promotion, Eagle Fight Club in Miami. The legendary fighter had shared his ambitions of cross-promoting a mega showdown between two former heavyweight champions Fedor Emelianenko and Junior Dos Santos.
Khabib wanted to cross-promote with Bellator
Khabib had mentioned his plans to talk to Scott Coker, President of Bellator MMA, during the build-up to Dos Santos’ most recent bout against Yorgan de Castro. ‘The Eagle’ had put forth the condition for ‘Cigano’ to come out victorious if he wanted to get the matchup against Fedor.
Dos Santos was looking in good shape landing some clean strikes as he used his experience to his advantage. However, all that would come crashing down in the opening minute of round three when Dos Santos would succumb to a TKO by a shoulder injury.
While this technically didn’t fulfill Khabib’s requirement, the 38-year-old Brazilian fought well enough to have the Dagestani try to make the fight. Khabib had also uploaded a photo with Coker to confirm the talks were ongoing.
Fedor Emelianenko is “not interested” in fighting JDS
Talking to Championat.com (via RT Sport), Fedor has now come out to express his lack of interest in fighting Dos Santos, who’s dropped five in a row, all by way of technical knockout. De Castro had spoken about possibly facing Fedor following his victory at Eagle FC 47 and appeared to be excited at the prospect.
“A meeting was planned with [Bellator president] Scott Coker. But, as I understand it, Scott and I are not interested in this fight with Junior dos Santos. First of all, because of the defeat of [Dos Santos].”
Fedor has won four of his last five and is looking to get a rematch with Ryan Bader sometime later this year. Many fight fans would agree in their desire to see the Russian square off against Dos Santos but it seems unlikely.
