Fedor Emelianenko took out several UFC legends during his 47-fight career, however, his win over Chael Sonnen was one of the most impressive.
Fedor Emelianenko will forever be considered one of the greatest fighters of all time, which is rare for someone who has never fought in the UFC.
Although ‘The Last Emperor’ never fought in the premier promotion, he and his team had several talks with Dana White over the years regarding a potential signing.
However, UFC icon Joe Rogan revealed the reason Fedor never signed with the UFC is that his team priced him out of negotiations by stating that they wanted co-ownership of the UFC, which White wasn’t willing to give up.
Despite having never fought under the UFC banner, the Russian heavyweight has shared the cage with several UFC legends over the years, including Rampage Jackson, whom he face-plant KO’d in the penultimate win of his career.
However, before sharing the cage with the former UFC light heavyweight champion, Emelianenko squared off against arguably the UFC’s greatest ever trash talker, Chael Sonnen.
After fighting here, there, and everywhere, the Russian signed a deal to fight in Bellator, where he lost his debut against Matt Mitrione.
He then rebounded from that disappointing outing by knocking out former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir in the first round.
42 years old at the time, Emelianenko was matched up with fellow veteran, Sonnen, who was on a two-fight win streak in Bellator.
After huge anticipation for the fight, Fedor showcased exactly why he is widely regarded as the greatest heavyweight fighter of all time when he knocked down Sonnen within the first four seconds of round one.
‘The Last Emperor’ scored a few more knockdowns before Sonnen slowly worked his way back into the fight by utilising his wrestling.
Despite that, with just less than a minute left of the fight, Sonnen attempted another takedown, but it was reversed by the Russian, who unleashed hellacious ground-and-pound on the trash talker, leading to the referee stepping in to stop the fight.
Sonnen claimed Fedor hit him ‘like a missile’
Not only was Emelianenko regarded as a great because of his incredible well roundedness, but he was also regarded as one of the hardest hitters in MMA history.
A few months removed from their fight, Sonnen explained Fedor’s punches as missile-like, backing up claims of his power.
“Guys, he hit me so hard it was like a missile, I keep calling it a missile, I got hit with a missile,” Sonnen said.
There are talks that the 48-year-old could return to combat sports, as Conor McGregor recently hinted that he is in talks to sign for BKFC.
