With the highly anticipated return of legendary Heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko set to headline EFN 50 against former UFC Light Heavyweight Fabio Maldonado fans across the world were expecting a spectacle.
But the fight was anything but and ended on a sour note.
Fedor was close to being stopped in the opening round which was as clear as a 10-8 round as could possibly be. The tide did turn in Fedor’s favour in the second and possibly third round to even things up, but even a generous judge would have scored the bout a draw.
But instead “The Last Emperor” was handed a majority decision which really called into question just exactly what the judges had been watching for fifteen minutes.
Although it seems that there was definitely some favouritism going into this bout as detailed in the below tweet by Bloody Elbow’s Karim Zidan;
The referee who is in the EFN cage now was assigned by the Russian MMA Union, which is headed by Fedor Emelianenko. #EFN50
— Karim Zidan (@ZidanSports) June 17, 2016
The judges have also been assigned by the Russian MMA Union, which Fedor is president of. Something to keep in mind.
— Karim Zidan (@ZidanSports) June 17, 2016
Prior to his return to the cage it was reported that Fedor had been in talks with the UFC about finally signing a deal with them, although following this performance you can argue that the chips will be firmly stacked in the UFC’s corner and any negotiating power Fedor once had has definitely diminished.