Scott Coker eyeing return of Fedor Emelianenko
source | Sherdog.com
By New Year’s Eve, Coker hopes to have had a discussion with one very prominent former employee: retired Russian heavyweight superstar Fedor Emelianenko. The ex-Strikeforce head plans on attending Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2014 in Tokyo on Dec. 31. At some point, he expects to cross paths with “The Last Emperor.”
Emelianenko, now 38, retired from mixed martial arts following a first-round knockout victory over Pedro Rizzo at an M-1 Global event on June 21, 2012. Could a comeback be in the offing? Coker thinks it’s at least worth the effort to find out.
“I’ve heard mixed signals. The last time I talked to [his people], they were basically saying he’s retired and he’s working for the government supporting MMA, the growth of MMA in Russia,” Coker said during a recent interview on the Sherdog Radio Network’s “Beatdown” show. “I’m going to the New Year’s Eve show in Japan, so I’ll be over there and I’ll be talking to him and seeing if there’s any interest.”