Manager: 'Fedor is not in a bad relationship with Dana White'
Fedor Emelianenko has a good relationship with Bellator president Scott Coker.
This relationship goes back to when "The Last Emperor" made his North American run under the Strikeforce umbrella, where Coker served as the promotion's head honcho, and it continues to this day as Emelianenko serves as a brand ambassador for Bellator.
With Fedor training for a return to MMA, his promotional debut with Bellator seems inevitable. A sure thing. A slam dunk.
Not so, says Emelianenko's manager, Vadim Finkelchtein.
"I think that doesn't matter at all," Finkelchtein told MMAFighting.com. "And you know, Fedor is not in a bad relationship with Dana White or anyone else."
Considered one of the greatest heavyweights to don a pair of four ounce gloves, Emelianenko famously never set foot in the UFC's Octagon. Negotiations between the world's biggest MMA promotion and the sport's most enigmatic star broke down following the dissolution of PRIDE, and after years of back-and-forth, a deal was never struck.
"I don't really know where he will fight," Finkelchtein said. "Time will show. It depends on which offer will be the best. He doesn't have any specific preferences. But I am sure U.S., Japan, Russia, and other countries will be happy to welcome Fedor.
"Fedor doesn't have any contracts with any promotions. Nothing bounds him. So I think that would be stupid not to be in negotiations with different MMA organizations. He has time, he has a wide choice so he can choose the contract with the best conditions for him."
According to Finkelchtein, Emelianenko's time away helped rebuild and re-invigorate the 38-year-old's body, readying him for matchups against the best heavyweights on the planet (including a few rematches that can only happen in the UFC).
"I think Fedor wants to fight against the best athletes," his manager said. "I know his fans want the rematches with (Fabricio) Werdum, (Antonio) Silva, (Dan) Henderson. But I didn't hear Fedor telling me he wanted to fight someone in particular."