Bellator 172 staff picks: Who's taking Fedor Emelianenko and Josh Koscheck in their Bellator debuts?

For the first time after years of rumors, legendary heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko will make his debut with Bellator on Saturday.

Bellator 172 takes place Saturday at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif. The main card airs on Spike after prelims on MMAjunkie.

In the main event, Fedor Emelianenko (36-4 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) makes his promotional debut against Matt Mitrione (11-5 MMA, 2-0 BMMA). Mitrione is a slight favorite with the oddsmakers, and nine of our 10 MMAjunkie editors, writers and radio hosts are picking him to win. Yet the underdog Emelianenko is the choice in our readers poll.

The co-main event is a lightweight fight between longtime Bellator veteran Patricky Freire (16-8 MMA, 9-7 BMMA) and Josh Thomson (22-8 MMA, 2-0 BMMA). Thomson will be fighting in front of his home fans in San Jose and is a 7-3 pick in the co-feature.

Also on the main card, Cheick Kongo (25-10-2 MMA, 7-2 BMMA) is a unanimous 10-0 pick over Oli Thompson (17-9 MMA, 0-1 BMMA). Veta Arteaga (2-1 MMA, 1-1 BMMA) is a near-unanimous pick over Brooke Mayo (0-0 MMA, 0-0 BMMA), who is making her women’s flyweight pro debut – but has one brave soul picking her to win. And at long last, Josh Koscheck (17-10 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) returns after nearly two years away to make his Bellator debut – and to try to snap a five-fight skid after spending most of his career in the UFC – against Mauricio Alonso (12-7 MMA, 0-1 BMMA). Koscheck is a unanimous pick from our crew despite the layoff and his delayed debut.

In the MMAjunkie reader consensus picks, Emelianenko, Thomson, Kongo, Arteaga and Koscheck are the choices.

Check out all the picks above.

For more on Bellator 172, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.