This fanpost is being created as an appreciation post for Fedor Emelianenko, as it appears after a stellar career, Fedor may be retiring after tonight's loss to Big Foot Silva.  For those of you who are fans and enjoyed Fedor Emelianenko the fighter and his career, or anyone who isn't a fan but respected and appreciated The Last Emperor's run, feel free to post your thoughts, comments, photos, gifs, videos, etc. here.

**Note:  Please refrain from posting any disparaging remarks or comments about Fedor or his legacy.  This post is intended to be a friendly and enjoyable tribute to a great fighter.  I really don't want to see all of the old debates and arguments that seem to never end.  Thank you!

Guess I'll start...

I'll keep it short.  I started watching MMA in 2002.  I guess like many fans I discovered the UFC first.  I was aware of PRIDE, but I never payed much attention to it or watched many of their shows.  So Fedor wasn't really anyone who was on my radar for many years.  I had heard of him, but did not know much about him or what he was doing in PRIDE.  It wasn't until PRIDE's fall and Fedor's fight with Tim Sylvia at Affliction that I got my first true viewing experience of The Last Emperor.  A good friend of mine told me how great Fedor was and how at the time he was the best fihter in the world.  Like many fans who didn't truly know about his run, I had written my friend off about Fedor.  I looked at the guy and all I saw was short, pudgy, unassuming man.  Boy how wrong I was!  After Fedor's destruction of Big Tim I was in awe and had to find out more about this guy.

I spent the next several weeks educating myself about the man and his accomplishments, and I looked up and watched as many of his fights as possible.  Needless to say, after that I was an instant believer and a fan of Fedor Emelianenko.  There was not a fight of Fedor's that I watched that I wasn't amazed by or thoroughly enjoyed with.  His stoic demeanor, humble personality, and beliefs just made me that much more of a fan.  He quickly became my favorite fighter of all time!

If the Fedor is truly sincere about retiring and decides to hang up the gloves, I want to thank him for an amazing career!  I appreciate all the bumps, bruises, and injuries he endured to putting on incredible fights to entertain fans like me.  There is no argument that he i the greatest heavyweight fighter to ever compete in MMA, and in my opinion, the greatest fighter of all time in the sport's history.  I hope he finds happiness in retirement that he deserves.

Thank You Fedor Emelianenko!