Technically speaking, you’ll be seeing Fedor Emelianenko (35-4, 1 NC) on a UFC platform this Friday. It won’t be inside the Octagon, but he will be fighting UFC veteran Fabio Maldonado in the EFN 50 main event in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It’s the 2nd time "The Last Emperor" has fought since coming out of retirement, and he will once again be a free agent following the Maldonado bout. The 39-year-old’s mere presence in the UFC is seen as an unfulfilled fantasy to many MMA fans. Could we see Fedor in a UFC cage any time soon? Maybe.
In an interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, Fedor revealed (with the assistance of his translator) that he feels he’s near to an actual UFC deal.
"Right now, I'm much closer compared to when I just came back to MMA," Emelianenko said. "Yes, we did receive an offer. But there are some finer points that we wanted to discuss."
"I always wanted to fight for UFC and I would fight for UFC, but at this moment we're looking at the deal and the deal has to satisfy both parties -- them and my organization," Emelianenko said. "Until there's no friction, until we are 100 percent in terms of seeing eye-to-eye, we are all basically in limbo."
Of course, one of the dream matchups of yesteryear was Fedor vs. Brock Lesnar, and with Brock back in the UFC, there would surely be interest in finally making this happen. According to Fedor, however, no such offer had been made.
"All I wanted to say is for now we never received a proposal like that," Emelianenko said. "But if somebody were to make that proposal, we'll definitely look at it closely."
Two months ago, Fedor also said that there was a "high probability" that he would sign with the UFC. Bellator MMA president Scott Coker was quoted in February as saying that it was possible that Fedor would compete under his promotion, but nothing more was let on beyond that. Emelianenko’s last fight was a 1st round stoppage win against Jaideep Singh on the inaugural Rizin Fighting Federation card in Japan.
(Transcription via MMA Fighting)
You can watch the full Fedor interview, at the top of the page, at the 2:55:25 mark of the video. EFN CEO Kamil Gadzhiev is also on the call.