For years MMA fans and analysts have hypothesized about what would happen if Fedor Emelianenko moved down a weight class to light heavyweight. Most salivated at the proposition of how much more dominant the once thought invincible Russian would be if he laid off the ice cream and vodka and moved down to fight at his more natural weight. Although the six-foot-tall, 230-pound fighter did quite well against much bigger opponents, he really wasn’t doing himself any favors by fighting giants with considerable height and weight advantages.
Case in point: In his last bout with Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, “The Last Emperor” couldn’t seem to shake the massive Brazilian due in large to his smothering 50-plus-pound weight advantage. We’ve seen in the past that when fighting off of his back that Fedor does quite well, but with heavyweights getting bigger and better and the 34-year-old former PRIDE champ getting older, it’s probably time to drop down a class if he wants to maintain his legacy as one of the sport’s most dominant fighters. Sure he’s only actually *really* lost twice, but he’s lost two fights in a row to guys he would have murdered five years ago and it isn’t because Fabricio Werdum or Antonio Silva have grown more exponentially as fighters as he has; it’s because Emelianenko’s strength and speed advantage has begun to dissipate.
Besides retooling his pre-Cold War training regimen and bringing in some fresh trainers and training partners, the only viable solution for the doughy facial expressionally-challenged fighter to rebound from his recent string of hard luck in the cage would be to move to light heavyweight.
According to Fighters Only, Emelianenko is actually reconsidering life as a heavyweight.
Representatives from M-1 Global informed the UK-based magazine over the weekend that Strikeforce has offered them a title bout with the promotion’s newly-crowned light heavyweight champ Dan Henderson later this year and that Fedor is strongly considering taking the fight and moving down to light heavyweight permanently. If it happens, Strikeforce’s 205-pound division may get a lot more interesting, but Emelianenko’s sometimes training partner and former Strikeforce light heavyweight champ Gegard Mousasi may reconsider his move up to 205 if it does.
