The Odd Couple: Why Fedor Emelianenko and the UFC Need Each Other

Imagine Peyton Manning (no wait, let’s put him aside for a second). Imagine Tom Brady playing his entire career in the World League of American Football, the XFL and the Arena Football league.  Imagine he never lost a game during any of those seasons and won 10 championship trophies.

Then imagine NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell berating Brady, saying he wasn’t a top five quarterback, that he wouldn’t hang in the NFL, and that he thinks he’s worth more than he is.

Sounds ridiculous, right? Well that’s what we have had in the UFC with the man who is possibly the greatest heavyweight fighter of all time. Or not, depending on who you ask, and if that person has a bald head and tends to talk a lot of smack that he later recants.

Whatever your take on him is, the great Fedor Emelianenko returns to MMA this Thursday, New Year’s Eve at Saitama Super Arena in Japan. The man who once went 10 years without a defeat (take that, Jon Jones), will fight MMA novice Jaideep Singh, who has 40 wins as a kickboxer, including a knockout of Sergei Kharitonov.

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Fedor should win this fight, but who knows? Stranger things have happened. He is 11 years older than his opponent, and Fedor didn’t exactly light it up in his last six fights before retirement. He lost three times in dramatic fashion, and then defeated three jobbers before hanging up his gloves.

While it’s not unusual for legendary fighters to hold on too long and retire on much smaller stages than they once headlined, Fedor’s New Year’s Eve money grab is a disappointment. Fedor should be enjoying a farewell tour in the UFC, the company for which he never fought.

For whatever reason, the UFC and Fedor have never been able to reach a deal. Fedor’s promotional company, M1-Global, and the UFC were never able to work out a deal. The rumor that M1-Global wanted too much money for Fedor, the UFC wanted too much control over Fedor, or a combination of both sunk the deal when Fedor was in his prime. Early this year the two sides were in negotiation, but nothing panned out. Fedor took a blockbuster deal with new promotion Rizin Fighting Federation, and he will allegedly receive $2.5 million to fight somebody who has slightly more MMA experience than CM Punk.

Fedor deserves some of the blame here. He clearly would never have received Ronda Rousey money to fight in the UFC, but is money really what should be driving him at this age? Doesn’t he want to prove the haters wrong and go win a fight in the UFC? Don’t tell me that Fedor couldn’t rematch with Antonio “Lightfoot” Silva and knock him out this time. The air created from Fedor’s missed looping right hand could probably take Silva out these days.

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Fedor would be competitive with a ton of the guys in the UFC’s heavyweight division, from Frank Mir to Andre Arlovski, to even Fabricio Werdum. I wouldn’t put him in the cage with Cain Velasquez unless the fight was in Mexico City.

Instead we get the greatest heavyweight of all time — the Ric Flair of MMA, the guy who built a legacy, identity and aura by knocking out and submitting guys bigger than him for a decade while fighting for Pride Fighting Championship, Affliction and Strikeforce — fighting some guy. Fedor became a legend without fighting in the UFC. Imagine what he could do with the No. 1 MMA promotion in the world.

Fedor appears more interested in paydays these days. The UFC, unfortunately, doesn’t want to give him what he wants, even though Fedor in the main event of any UFC card would probably break 1.25 million buys. Put Fedor in the Octagon with someone like Jon Jones and we potentially have the biggest fight in the history of MMA.

But for now, the UFC and Fedor have no chemistry. Now Fedor runs the risk of getting knocked out by someone in a fight that no one is going to see. Hey, if you are going to get knocked out, why not do it on the biggest stage of them the all. Even CM Punk knows that.

Let’s hold on to a glimmer of hope that Fedor wins on New Year’s Eve and then makes an appearance at UFC 200. As it stands now, people will question whether Fedor can be seen as the greatest of all time without a UFC win. The UFC will have to go down in history as the company that never signed one of the greatest heavyweights in the history of the sport. These two need each other.

Follow Joshua Molina on Twitter: @JECMolina