LowKick.com Exclusive: Interview with “The Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko
Arguably #1 Pound for Pound fighter in the World, Fedor “The Last Emperor” Emelianenko, took time off his busy schedule to answer on five questions exclusively for LowKick.com Community. Fedor Emelianenko was born on September 28, 1976 in the small town of Rubizhne (Ukraine), and moved to Stariy Oskol (Russia) with his parents and brother at the age of two. Fedor Emelianenko is currently married to Marina (second marriage), and has two children.
WAMMA Heavyweight Champion is currently 31-1-1 in his illustrious Mixed Martial Arts career, defeating some of the toughest opponents in the sport. Fedor’s next fight will be against the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Ace Fabricio Werdum (non-title affair) on June 26th at Strikeforce: Fedor vs Werdum, held at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California.
In your illustrious career you fought in Japan, Russia, Lithuania and United States. Is there another country you would love to fight in someday?
Every country is special in its own way, but in every country I fought I felt very good and enjoyed the support of the local fans. As for my favorite country, I would love to fight again in Japan.
Alistair Overeem is very proud of his K-1 achievements, claiming that you would not have the same success. What do you think about the idea of competing in K-1?
I never thought about fighting in K-1. I am currently under an active contract with M-1 Global.
It becomes very popular in today’s Mixed Martial Arts to cut weight, competing in multiple divisions. Did you ever consider dropping down a weight class to fight at Light Heavyweight?
No. My current weight is 105kg (231.4 pounds). That is the exact weight I need to feel most comfortable.
Your next fight is against Fabricio Werdum on June 26th. What alerts you the most about him, and will you have any sort of special preparation for that fight?
Fabricio Werdum is a very strong and experienced opponent. There will not be any kind of special preparations for that fight. I have relatively the same training camp for every opponent.
You’ve recently opened a new Sambo Training Center in Stariy Oskol. What do you think about the development of MMA in the former USSR countries, and if it has a chance to someday catch-up with countries like Brazil and USA?
What we have in Stariy Oskol is a Sports Hall named after Alexander Nevsky. Children are training there not only in Sambo, but also in other sports. We have a lot of talented guys in Russia and the former CIS countries. Right now Mixed Martial Arts is slowly progressing in Russia, but I am sure that one day we will catch-up with USA and Brazil.
For full image gallery of Fedor’s training camp visit MixFight.ru
