Video: Fedor Emelianenko Snaps His Losing Streak, Outpoints Jeff Monson in Moscow

It’s been a tough couple of years for heavyweight legend Fedor Emelianenko. First, a brilliant MMA strategist named Damian Demento went public with a groundbreaking strategy on how to defeat him, which involved putting the boots to Fedor’s belly and intentionally mispronouncing his name. Then, his next three opponents beat him by stoppage. Coincidence? I don’t know. You tell me.

What’s important is that Fedor finally got back in the win column on Sunday, winning a unanimous decision over American grappler Jeff Monson at M-1 Global: Fedor vs. Monson, in front of a crowd of over 20,000 at Moscow’s Olympic Stadium that included Vladimir Putin. The full fight video is above, which shows Fedor in more controlled, measured form than his recent appearances, choosing to stay on the outside and score with leg kicks and long punches for the majority of the fight.

Monson, unfortunately, had nothing for him. In fact, the only times the Snowman was able to get the fight to the ground is when he fell over after getting punched in the face.

So, is Fedor “back”? Since we don’t know if he’ll ever face top-ten competition again, it’ll be hard to answer that question. He’ll reportedly return at DREAM’s New Year’s Eve show against Japanese judoka Satoshi Ishii (4-1-1), who most recently fought to a draw against Paulo Filho at Amazon Forest Combat. Full results from M-1 Global: Fedor vs. Monson are below.

– Fedor Emelianenko def. Jeff Monson via unanimous decision
– Daniel Weichel def. Jose Figueroa via KO, round 1 (becomes new M-1 lightweight champion)
– Alexander Yakovlev def. Juan Manuel Suarez via TKO, round 2
– Yuri Ivlev def. Jerome Bouisson via TKO, round 1
– Mairbek Taisumov def. Joshua Thorpe via KO, round 2
– Mikhail Malyutin def. Seydina Seck via KO, round 1
– Albert Duraev def. Xavier Foupa-Pokam via submission (triangle choke), round 2
– Salim Davidov def. Sergey Kornev via unanimous decision