{"id":603541,"date":"2023-02-01T13:04:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T19:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/01\/fedor-emelianenko-retirement-celebration-to-include-legends-randy-couture-royce-gracie-chuck-liddell-more\/"},"modified":"2023-02-01T13:04:00","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T19:04:00","slug":"fedor-emelianenko-retirement-celebration-to-include-legends-randy-couture-royce-gracie-chuck-liddell-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/01\/fedor-emelianenko-retirement-celebration-to-include-legends-randy-couture-royce-gracie-chuck-liddell-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Fedor Emelianenko retirement celebration to include legends Randy Couture, Royce Gracie, Chuck Liddell, more"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p id=\"AFHoYN\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/fighter\/23\/fedor-emelianenko\">Fedor Emelianenko<\/a>\u2019s greatness will be recognized by some of the greatest to ever do it.<\/p>\n<p id=\"s0DuYH\">Following of the last fight of \u201cThe Last Emperor,\u201d which takes place against heavyweight champion <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/fighter\/39\/ryan-bader\">Ryan Bader<\/a> this Saturday at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/fight-card\/1354\/bellator-290-bader-vs-fedor-2\">Bellator 290<\/a> in Inglewood, Calif., Emelianenko will be honored with a special ceremony on fight night that has an illustrious guest list, which includes legends <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/fighter\/41\/randy-couture\">Randy Couture<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/fighter\/656\/royce-gracie\">Royce Gracie<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/fighter\/489\/chuck-liddell\">Chuck Liddell<\/a> and more.<\/p>\n<p id=\"gt7Vjt\">Bellator President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/fighter\/2938\/scott-coker\">Scott Coker<\/a> announced the full list of attendees on <em>The MMA Hour<\/em>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li id=\"x7CDEG\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/fighter\/409\/josh-barnett\">Josh Barnett<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"rZH9FK\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/fighter\/857\/mark-coleman\">Mark Coleman<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"iLEZ7R\">Randy Couture<\/li>\n<li id=\"B5wPin\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/fighter\/666\/renzo-gracie\">Renzo Gracie<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"u2oVr5\">Royce Gracie<\/li>\n<li id=\"a5k7FJ\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/fighter\/88\/dan-henderson\">Dan Henderson<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"Ajsx6X\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/fighter\/113\/matt-hughes\">Matt Hughes<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"qJIa3D\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/fighter\/46\/quinton-jackson\">Quinton \u201cRampage\u201d Jackson<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"uT8UjU\">Chuck Liddell<\/li>\n<li id=\"Ke5LEo\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/fighter\/730\/frank-shamrock\">Frank Shamrock<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"RkgfSA\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/fighter\/103\/chael-sonnen\">Chael Sonnen<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p id=\"7cVbHw\">According to Coker, these famous names lined up to celebrate Emelianenko when the news came around that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/2023\/1\/29\/23575076\/roundtable-who-is-the-greatest-heavyweight-of-all-time\">the all-time great heavyweight<\/a> was announced for his final fight.<\/p>\n<p id=\"W0pf0Q\">\u201cThis happened in an organic manner,\u201d Coker said. \u201cWe started getting calls from different fighters that wanted to come to the fight and watch Fedor fight. So one of the first calls I got was from Randy Couture saying, \u2018Hey, I\u2019d like to attend his last fight.\u2019 I said, \u2018Great.\u2019 Then Dan Henderson said, \u2018Hey, I\u2019d really like to be there.\u2019 Royce Gracie wanted to come, so he\u2019s there. Mark Coleman will be in attendance.<\/p>\n<p id=\"CT97QP\">\u201cAll these legends of the sport that really are the roots and the foundation of MMA started calling and we said, look, this is a very special occasion. We\u2019re going to have all these O.G.s, legends from the days that really built MMA, why don\u2019t we do something special? &#8230; It\u2019s really the who\u2019s who of MMA from that era. And this is the end of an era, the page is really turning to the next chapter of mixed martial arts. But Fedor is The Last Emperor and this is his last stand and all these gentlemen will go into the cage as Fedor is probably saying his speech and he\u2019s going to retire and they\u2019re going to stand behind him and when Fedor gets up from putting his gloves down, they\u2019re all going to be there to congratulate him. This is a ceremony and a great sendoff to the greatest heavyweight of all time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"YdCqGw\">Emelianenko has crossed paths either directly or indirectly with several of the invitees, including in-cage clashes with Jackson, Sonnen, Henderson, and Coleman. He was also tied to bouts with Couture and Barnett that never materialized.<\/p>\n<p id=\"WTboPJ\">The other legends set to appear may not have as distinct a connection with Emelianenko, but Coker is thrilled to have them all the same.<\/p>\n<p id=\"3dKZkw\">\u201cIt\u2019s something that\u2019s really special and means a lot to me because I look at this from a martial arts perspective,\u201d Coker said. \u201cThese are the greatest martial artists of their time and their era and they really built what MMA is today and they really built the evolution of what mixed martial arts is today. They deserve to be in the cage with Fedor. It\u2019s going to be a magic moment and I\u2019m really looking forward to it and saying hello to all these gentlemen.<\/p>\n<p id=\"5PoxWl\">\u201cThese gentlemen were all so very nice and really respectful and they\u2019re like, \u2018I would love to be there.\u2019 I told them, \u2018We\u2019d love to have you in the cage after.\u2019 They said, \u2018We would love to do that.\u2019 They\u2019re there to pay tribute to Fedor Emelianenko.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"EfmKeU\">One more added wrinkle to Emelianenko\u2019s retirement bout is that should he defeat Bader, he would hang up the gloves as Bellator\u2019s heavyweight champion. Coker confirmed that the title will be vacated in the event of an Emelianenko victory.<\/p>\n<p id=\"JxNXve\">\u201cWe have other fighters that we could put in there for a title fight in the future, but when he fights this fight, win or lose or even a draw, he is going to retire,\u201d Coker said. \u201cSo that title, if he wins, will be vacant.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/2023\/2\/1\/23581556\/fedor-emelianenko-retirement-celebration-to-include-legends-randy-couture-royce-gracie-chuck-liddell\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><br \/>\n Alexander K. Lee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fedor Emelianenko\u2019s greatness will be recognized by some of the greatest to ever do it. Following of the last fight of \u201cThe Last Emperor,\u201d which takes place against heavyweight champion Ryan Bader this Saturday at Bellator 290 in Inglewood, Calif., Emelianenko will be honored with a special ceremony on fight night that has an illustrious [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":603542,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78647,78646,534],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-603541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-emelianenko","category-fedor","category-financial"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}