Last Saturday’s Bellator 172 was set to be an epic event. Heavyweight icon Fedor “The Last Emporer” Emelianenko was ready to make his Bellator debut against Matt Mitrione in the main event.
Everything was going according to schedule, until moments before the prelims began.
With a moments notice, Matt Mitrione was pulled from the fight. He had kidney stones.
Mitrione was incapacitated so close to the event, that there was simply no time to find a replacement for “The Last Emperor.” Emelianenko was forced to sit on the sidelines for the event, leaving him untested in the Bellator promotion.
Bellator president Scott Coker shed some light on how “The Last Emperor” has handled the situation in an interview with Daily Star.
“It’s the first time that I’ve ever seen him sigh.” Coker said. “After that, he was just Fedor. He says it’s not God’s time. He’s a very religious man. The whole week in San Jose that he was there, every day he ran to San Fransico, which is about an hour, and he would go to this one church twice a day. So, he just felt like if God wanted him to fight, he would fight.”
It would appear that Emelianenko is as headstrong and stoic as ever. When Emelianenko will be able to demonstrate that power in the ring is still being determined, but the heavyweight has shown interest in rescheduling a bout with Mitrione in the future.
