PHOENIX – Many thought Fedor Emelianenko was next to challenge for the Bellator heavyweight title, but that won’t be the case – at least for now.
The heavyweight belt was up for grabs Saturday when champion Ryan Bader stepped in to defend it against Emelianenko protege Valentin Moldavsky in the Bellator 273 main event. If Bader successfully defended the Bellator title, many thought it could potentially set up a rematch with Emelianenko later this summer.
But as soon as Bader was announced the unanimous decision winner, the promotion revealed a different rematch. Bader and Cheick Kongo will run it back May 6 in Paris. Their first fight, in 2019, ended in a no contest when Kongo was accidentally poked in the eye and couldn’t continue.
With the Bader-Kongo 2 booking, Bellator president Scott Coker says it’s unlikely Emelianenko will get a rematch with Bader for his retirement fight, which is planned for July.
“This is a fight that we’ve been putting together for a while,” Coker told reporters after Bellator 273. “They fought in San Jose a couple of years ago. … So let’s just run it back. We’ve been trying to put that fight together for some time and we had a date in Paris that we wanted to go in May. It’s the week before the fight in London with (Michael Page) vs. (Yaroslav) Amosov.
“So we put the fight together. (We said) whoever wins between Moldavsky and Bader will fight Cheick Kongo. Fedor did tell me before the fight, ‘If Bader wins, I’d really like to fight him for the belt.’ I said, ‘Well, Kongo is going to fight him in Paris, and we’ll see what happens.’ May to July is not a lot of time. We’ll see what happens. This is a very crazy business. Things change rapidly. It’s a very fluid business, so we’ll see what happens.”
Emelianenko has been competing in MMA for more than two decades. The 45-year-old is targeted to do one final fight before he hangs up the gloves. Coker said the fight will likely take place this summer in Moscow.
Coker plans to speaks to Emelianenko soon and figure out who will be the last opponent for his storied MMA career.
“Him and I will sit down and have a conversation,” Coker said. “This is his retirement fight, and now that Bader is the champion, I’m not sure if they’ll be able to lock it up at some point. But there’s other heavyweights that he can fight. We’ll find somebody for him that makes sense.”
With Bader vs. Kongo 2 booked, Scott Coker weighs in on Fedor Emelianenko’s future
