Fedor- From Great to GreatDisappointment
By Dane McGuire from InsideSTL.com
Come one, come all! Watch “The Last Emperor” Fedor Emelianenko snap necks and cash checks! YAY!
Fedor faces UFC veteran Fabio Maldonado for Fight Nights in his home of Russia on June 17 and to say that Emelianenko still has drawing power at 39 draws an obvious, “DUH!”, but the past is the only real marketing asset.
Does the Heavyweight still have power? Again, DUH! However, it’s easy to look great when Rizin Fighting FEDORation brings in 2-2 Jaideep Singh for your first fight back in three years. I wrote that last line knowing that Emelianenko could still snap my neck like one of pro wrestler “Classy” Freddie Blassie’s “pencil-neck geeks.”
So why will you inevitably watch him again? I’ll answer that with another question: Why do people gawk at car accidents? If you need a laugh for the day, you should also be informed that this show is such a cash-grab that Emelianenko won’t even be drug tested. “We will not check for doping,” Fight Nights promoter Kamil Gadzhiev said. “We do not have doping control. In this regard, we do not make exceptions.”
Asked whether he is concerned about the fighters using banned substances to enhance their performances during fights, the promoter offered a nonchalant response: “No, we did not think about it.” Source: Tass.ru/Karim Zidan-BloodyElbow.com
No reason was given for why there is a lack of doping control in the promotion. Emelianenko insists that he has never used performance enhancers, but that’s not the bigger picture here. Watch if you will (at least this is somewhat of a step up in competition,) but just know that the ratings that this event will bring in allows Emelianenko and madman Gadzhiev to raise a pair of metaphorical (or literal) middle fingers to the sport Emelianenko helped pioneer and it could set it back immensely. This is also at the same time he continues to tease us with talks with the UFC.
Warning: OPINION ahead. This man–legend or not–is now a plague.
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Dane McGuire is an MMA Journalist and Op-Ed writer for CBS Sports Radio- St. Louis’ InsideSTL.com and the host of “PunchDrunk Radio” available on InsideSTL/HalfGuarded.com.
Check out McGuire’s podcast “PunchDrunk Radio” episode 5 with HalfGuarded.com’s @PeachMachine talking UFC Fight Night Tampa.
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