Strikeforce
FEDOR NEWS: Fedor Emelianenko may retire at the end of his Strikeforce contract; running for congress in Russia
Jun 4, 2010 - 9:08:06 AM FEDOR NEWS: Fedor Emelianenko may retire at the end of his Strikeforce contract; running for congress in Russia

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Fedor Emelianenko, considered by most to be the greatest heavyweight fighter in MMA history, may be finishing his career in 2010. News is breaking this morning that the Russian will be running for a congress seat in his home country for the pro-Kremlin party 'United Russia.' Not only that, but there are rumors that he will retire outright from MMA at the end of his current Strikeforce contract.

The rumors were first reported by MiddleEasy.com, and his political office aspirations have since been confirmed by a press release from M-1 Global. The English translation of the Russian press release reads as follows:

The regional political council of the party "United Russia" approved the list of candidates for internal party elections - the primaries. In the list of 58 candidates. No less than 10 000 United Russia vote will determine the best, and who will receive the first place in the party list in the upcoming October elections in the Belgorod Regional Duma.

The list of early voting have 24 newcomers who have never participated in elections to the legislature. One of the achievements was the inclusion in the list not only members of United Russia, but also simply to party supporters and even non-party candidates. This is for example the managing director Combine KMA Ruda Vladimir Tom and CEO JBK-1 Yuri Selivanov. They are not only members of the party, but also by working in obldume fourth convocation, not included in the United Russia Duma faction.

Among the most notable candidates, in addition to the deputies (Anatolia Zelikow, Victor Filatov, Vadim Cage, Valeria Skruga, Ivan Kulabuhova, Vladimir Kulikovsky) - a famous athlete Fedor Emelianenko, the new director of Belarusian State Technological University Sergey Glagolev (by the way, non-partisan), director of the Institute of Public and municipal government BSU Alexander Mamatov.

Fedor is set to fight Fabricio Werdum on June 26, leaving one fight left on his contract. Alistair Overeem should be up next after that, but it now appears dependent on a number of factors as to whether that fight takes place, most noticeably if Fedor retires after the Werdum fight to concentrate on running for office.

Penick's Analysis: Well, this is unfortunate news on many levels. I don't think it's anywhere near a certainty that the Overeem bout comes to fruition now, as Strikeforce would be left with another dilemma if they set that fight up, Fedor wins the belt and then retires. That's if he even takes his third fight with the organization. It would also kill the dream of ever seeing Fedor fight in the UFC or against the top of the UFC's current crop of heavyweights. Considering the dangers many feel the top four or five guys would present Fedor, it's really too bad we'll likely never find out how those fights play out.

This is also going to give fuel to both sides of the "Fedor's the greatest of all time" - "He hasn't beaten anyone in the last four years" debate that seems to rage on. If he retires and never (rightfully) loses a fight, it's hard not to consider him the best heavyweight the sport has ever seen. He hasn't fought the best of this current era of heavyweights over the last couple of years, but he has defeated two former UFC Champions. On the other side of the coin, for a lot of people, Alistair Overeem included, if he retires and runs for office it may be taken as M-1 once again finding a way to duck Overeem.

This is something that just sucks for the fans, and especially for Strikeforce. They put all their eggs in his basket, got into the Fedor business, and now he'll likely be out as quickly as he came in. With the difficulties they've already had with him and M-1 Global it may be good for them to get rid of the headache, but considering they've drawn poorly on shows without him recently it's going to be a highly unfortunate blow for them. We'll have to wait to see how this develops through the rest of the year, but fans, I suppose, need to just hold out hope that we'll at least get to see Fedor vs. Overeem before the Russian hangs it all up.