Mixed martial arts veteran Fedor Emelianenko has decided to retire. The news came after his knockout victory over Pedro Rizzo at the “M-1 Global: Fedor vs. Rizzo” event which took place on Thursday at the Ice Palace in St.Petersburg, Russia.
It was Ron Kruck from HDNet who confirmed that Fedor was indeed retiring.
The headline bout between Emelianenko and Rizzo lasted less then 90 seconds, Fedor knocked out his opponent which means he will leave the sport on a three fight winning streak.
Performance wise the worst part of Fedor’s career was undoubtedly his time in Strikeforce. The 35-year-old’s record in the promotion was (1-3) with losses to Fabricio Werdum, Antonio Silva, and Dan Henderson. Fedor was released by Zuffa after his lost to Henderson and since then he has won every fight. He first defeated Jeff Monson by unanimous decision at an M-1 Global event in November 2011. The Russian then went over to Japan and beat Satoshi Ishii by knockout in December 2011.
Emelianenko will be remembered most for his time in PRIDE where he defeated notable fighters such as Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman, Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, and Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipović. Fedor actually went undefeated from 2001 – 2010 which is an incredible achievement for any fighter, and will leave the sport with an overall record of (34-4) after having competed for 12 years as a pro MMA fighter.
Following the fight against Pedro Rizzo, Fedor was joined in the ring by his family, trainers, and managers who along with the crowd all paid their respects to the long serving fighter.