Fedor Emelianenko was once thought to be all but invincible. After suffering the first loss of his career in his fifth professional fight, due to a freak cut 17 seconds into the bout, Fedor went 27 consecutive fights without losing again.
He was then submitted by Fabricio Werdum, followed by a TKO stoppage loss to Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva.
The calls of “past his prime” and “over the hill” started to fly into the face of the 34-year-old Russian.
Dan Henderson isn’t buying it.
“I’ve gone through two or three times with a couple losses in a row,” he told MMAWeekly.com, knowing all too well that fans can be fickle at times.
Heading into Saturday’s Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson main event, the former two-division Pride champion won’t be lulled into a false sense of security. He knows that the former heavyweight kingpin still packs power in his punches and has a few tricks up his sleeve.
Henderson is ready for the same Fedor that was a wrecking machine in Pride, and expects the best we’ve seen from the ‘Last Emperor’ when they meet.
Here what Hendo had to say in this exclusive one-on-one interview with MMAWeekly.com‘s Damon Martin.