BREAKING
Fedor Emelianenko returns against No. ranked heavyweight @TBearTim in
the
#BellatorMoscow main event, Saturday, Oct. 23 at the VTB
ArenaTickets on sale NOW https://t.co/wh48J9HfEO pic.twitter.com/noLYPKWBED
— BellatorMMA (@BellatorMMA)
August 5, 2021
Recent Bellator MMA interim title challenger Timothy
Johnson is the winner of the Fedor
Emelianenko sweepstakes.
On Thursday, Bellator announced that Emelianenko (39-6, 1 NC) now
has an opponent for his headliner atop
Bellator Moscow in October. The Oct. 23 show, which will be
held inside the VTB Arena – barring any COVID-19 related concerns –
will be capped off by a heavyweight battle between Emelianenko and
Johnson (15-7). While this will be the final bout for “The Last
Emperor” in his home country of Russia, he will reportedly take one
more match to say goodbye to the sport.
The Pride Fighting Championships legend had
multiple different foes suggested or offered for his final run.
Those names included Junior dos
Santos, Josh Barnett,
Alistair
Overeem, Fabricio
Werdum and even Anderson
Silva. Dos Santos
supposedly received an offer for a possible matchup, but it
fell through. Instead, the promotion will be using a member
currently on its roster rather than signing a free agent.
The 44-year-old has won three of four, with his lone defeat in that
stretch to Ryan Bader
for the heavyweight crown. On his way through the Bellator
heavyweight tournament, he bested Frank Mir and
Chael
Sonnen, both by first-round knockout. Each of his last five
bouts, win or lose, have ended in the first round due to strikes.
Emelianenko retired after his win over Pedro Rizzo in
2021, but he returned over three years later to compete under the
Rizin Fighting Federation banner and force
Jaideep
Singh to tap to strikes.
Johnson is coming off of a loss to Emelianenko’s teammate Valentin
Moldavsky for the interim heavyweight crown in June. Johnson
fought beyond the third round for the first time in his career in
that match, and he fell short by lopsided unanimous decision when
ultimately unable to stop Moldavsky’s grappling. The defeat snapped
a three-fight win streak where the ex-Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter knocked
out Tyrell
Fortune and Matt
Mitrione, while winning a decision over Cheick Kongo
to get a crack at gold. Johnson was part of the first headliner
into France when he faced Kongo, and he will be a member of the
inaugural main event for Bellator into Russia.
Bellator Moscow, a currently unnumbered event while the promotion
announces other upcoming dates, will go down on Oct. 23 in the VTB
Arena in Moscow. The Emelianenko-Johnson heavyweight clash will not
be the only major tilt in the weight class, as ex-champ Vitaly
Minakov returns from a lengthy absence against Fortune.
Unbeaten lightweight prospect Usman
Nurmagomedov has been linked to this card as well, but his
opponent is currently undetermined.