One of the true legends in MMA will make his debut in Bellator on Saturday when Fedor Emelianenko meets Matt Mitrione. Emelianenko may be the most famous fighter to never step foot in the Octagon, but that almost changed last year when the promotion started negotiating with him again. Unfortunately a deal couldn’t be reached.
He did reach one with Bellator though, and as a guest on The MMA Hour, he explained why he picked the Viacom-owned promotion over the bigger stage of the UFC (via MMA Fighting):
“We had made great relations with Scott Coker,” Emelianenko said through an interpreter. “I received a very good offer from Bellator. In addition, Bellator invited my entire team. So all of the guys will be performing as well.”
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“Depending on the point of view, a lot of times you can be very close and sort of go around and around and never get to it,” he said. “There were some things that were not satisfactory for UFC and there were some things that were not satisfactory for me and we never came to an agreement.”
“One of the main reasons was the ability for my team to perform, for my guys to perform,” Emelianenko said. “The other reasons were, we were not exactly on the same terms [with the UFC] as far as the financial conditions and some other things, some other smaller things as well.”
The 40-year-old also revealed during the interview that his contract with Bellator is for two fights, with a mutual option for a third. He intends to end his career with the promotion, and says retirement wasn’t on his mind after his last bout, a controversial decision win over Fabio Maldonado.
Emelianenko and Mitrione meet in the Bellator 172 headliner this Saturday in San Jose, CA.