Fedor Emelianenko hade tydligen stor kontroll över sin kommande match på Eurasia Fight Nights. Enligt Kamil Gadzhiev på Fight Nights Global fick ”The Last Emperor” välja fighter från en lista med möjliga motståndare.
Ryssen Fedor Emelianenko (35-4, 1 NC) ska tydligen ha fått välja vem han skulle möta i sin match på Eurasia Fight Nights på fredag den 17 juni från en lista med möjliga motståndare. Promotorn Kamil Gadzhiev på Fight Nights Global avslöjade i en podcast på ValeTudo.ru detaljer kring hur det gick till när ”The Last Emperors” motståndare skulle väljas. Ryssens ikoniska status var det som gjorde att de tillät honom välja motståndare. Via BloodyElbow.com:
”Fedor was choosing from opponents that I offered him. This is a situation where Fedor’s name is much bigger than the name of Fight Nights. We have to call things by what they really are. We can’t appoint the opponents for Fedor. We’re simply in a different league here. We have parity.”
Med hans namn på matchkortet har denna gala fått en mycket hög status och de var redo att genomföra alla krav de kunde få.
”Fedor’s participation is extremely important in this event. For us it’s a milestone marketing event. So it’s not the situation when we signed a guy and can do anything in the interests of the organization. Why should I lie to everyone now? Yes, we need Fedor, as it’s a breakthrough for us. But we can get Fedor in our fight card only by taking into consideration his interests also.”
Engelske fightern Oli Thompson (16-8) berättar för BloodyElbow att han blev kontaktad om att eventuellt möta honom.
”Fedor was totally adequate when choosing the opponent. He never said ’give me a can so I could beat him.’ He understands that fighting a lower-class opponent that he would defeat in one minute is a road to nowhere. Japanese didn’t have many options with Jaideep Singh back in time. But if his fight with Maldonado will be the same, people would eventually lose interest in Fedor. He understands this and never asks someone [weak] he could easily beat.
Emelianenko match mot Fabio Maldonado (22-9) på fredag streamas på UFC Fight Pass.
