Fedor Emelianenko

Megha

New member
[lang=en]
220px-Fedor_Emelianenko_2009.jpg
[FOOTNOTE]Images : wikimedia.org[/FOOTNOTE]

Fedor Vladimirovich Emelianenko (Russian: Фёдор Влади́мирович Емелья́ненко, tr. Fyodor Vladimirovich Yemelyanenko, IPA: [ˈfʲɵdər vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ jɪmʲɪlʲˈjanʲɪnkə) (born September 28, 1976) is a Russian heavyweight mixed martial artist. He has won numerous tournaments and accolades in multiple sports, most notably the Pride 2004 Grand Prix and the World Combat Sambo championship on four occasions, as well as medaling in the Russian national Judo championship.

He holds the distinction of having held five separate major championships, including the RINGS World Heavyweight and King of Kings Championships, the Pride Fighting Championships World Heavyweight and Heavyweight Grand Prix Championships, and the World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship.

Emelianenko has received widespread acclaim from several major publications, including Sports Illustrated, USA Today, and Sherdog.com. As of July 2011, Sherdog.com and MMAWeekly ranks him as the #8 fighter in the heavyweight division. Many analysts, as well as former and current fighters, consider Emelianenko to be the greatest mixed martial artist of all time. He remained undefeated for nearly a decade, during which time he was widely considered the best heavyweight fighter in mixed martial arts.

Biography
Emelianenko was born in 1976 in the city of Rubizhne, Luhansk in what was then the Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine). In 1978, when he was two, his family moved within the Soviet Union to Stary Oskol, Belgorod of the Russian SFSR. His mother, Olga Fedorovna, was a teacher and his father, Vladimir Alexandrovich Emelianenko, was a welder. Emelianenko is the second child in the family and has an older sister and two younger brothers, including professional mixed martial artist Alexander Emelianenko. Fedor trains with his youngest brother Ivan, who has competed in Combat Sambo, and plans to begin a career in MMA in 2010.

Emelianenko finished high school in 1991 and graduated with honors from a professional trade school in 1994. From 1995 until 1997, he served in the Russian Army as a military firefighter. In 1999, he married his wife Oksana, and their daughter Masha was born in the same year. They divorced in 2006. On December 29, 2007, his second daughter, Vasilisa, was born to his long time girlfriend Marina. Emelianenko and Marina married in October 2009. In his spare time, he likes to read, listen to music, and draw. He is a practicing Orthodox Christian and a parishioner at the church of St. Nicholas in Stary Oskol. His confessor is archpriest Andrei Zinoviev. His entrance theme song, oy, to ne vecher, was performed at his request by archdeacon Andrey Zheleznyakov, solist at the Episcopal Choir of the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese.

Emelianenko had the honour of being one of 80 Russian sporting champions, cultural icons and national heroes to carry the Olympic torch in St. Petersburg in 2008.

Club affiliation
Emelianenko began his mixed martial arts as a member of Russian Top Team (RTT), training with the first generation of Russian RINGS competitors, such as Volk Han and Andrey Kopylov. After winning his Pride Heavyweight title, a rift grew between Emelianenko and the manager of RTT, Vladimir Evgenevich Pogodin. According to Emelianenko, Pogodin, who held the position of vice-president in the World Sambo Federation, attempted to control Emelianenko's career through threats and abuse of his position to deny "Master of Sport" ranks to Fedor and his brother Alexander. Emelianenko alleged he was deceived by Pogodin in financial disputes between Pogodin and Emelianenko. After his bout with Gary Goodridge, the Emelianenko brothers left Russian Top Team and began to train in St. Petersburg with the Red Devil Sport Club, which is managed by Vadim Finkelstein. To date, Finkelstein is still his manager. Emelianenko is a member of the VOS gym in Holland, where he trains with Johan Vos and Lucien Carbin.[citation needed] Emelianenko has trained with the likes of Ernesto Hoost, Tyrone Spong, and Denis Lebedev. [FOOTNOTE]wikipedia.org[/FOOTNOTE][/lang]




[h=1]Reference & Resources[/h]
[REFLIST]1[/REFLIST]
 
Back
Top