Although Dana White held UFC 127 this past Saturday in Australia, and is hosting a freebie fight card this Thursday in Kentucky, the Octagon president had more than enough time on his hands to drop his two cents on Fedor Emelianenko.
According to the brash promoter, the Russianās best days are well in his rear-view mirror and his fanboys simply need to live in the now.
āHis fans just need to deal with it. Deal with the fact that heās not one of the best in the world. Itās over,ā White matter of factly told MMAFighting. āAll that was back in 2005. Itās not 2005 anymore.
āGuyās been inactive, hasnāt fought anybody good in a long time. He looks old and itās over. It is what it is.ā
White has tried to recruit Emelianenko to fight inside of his Octagon for years to no avail. To him, Fedor will always be the one that got away. It appears his heartbreak has quickly subsided since āThe Last Emperorā was finished in his last two outings.
When asked what would happen if Emelianenko and his M-1 Global management company begged for a shot at the big leagues, White suggested his offer was permanently pulled from the table many moons ago.
āYou canāt do business with these people, you just canāt do business with them,ā White stated. āThey made it very clear, even before [Fedor] got beat up twice, that they donāt want to fight the guys in the UFC.
āYou saw what happened to him the last two fights. Why would you want to come in here and fight [my] heavyweights when you can go over there and make a couple million bucks getting beat up by guys that arenāt that good?ā
After rattling off 27 consecutive victories, Emelianenko has now dropped his second straight scrap. The heavyweight divisionās G.O.A.T. owns a 31-3 (1 NC) career record.
Written by Tom Ngo
