Junior Dos Santos will make his Eagle FC debut on Friday, but it turns out the promotion already has big plans for his future.
If the former UFC heavyweight champion is able to get through Yorgan De Castro in the Eagle FC 47 main event, Khabib Nurmagomedov announced plans to pursue a fight that would book Dos Santos against Fedor Emelianenko in the near future.
“If Dos Santas wins, I want Dos Santos to face Fedor,” Nurmagomedov stated at the Eagle FC 47 press conference. He must focus next on Yorgan because he faces a difficult opponent.
“He needs to keep his eyes on the prize, but I need to speak to Scott Coker about Fedor’s Bellator contract. I don’t know what they’re going to do next with him but definitely we can talk and we can create some good stories.”
Emelianenko has been widely regarded as the best heavyweight in history, but is now nearing the end of his remarkable career.
With his 46th Birthday approaching in September Emelianenko stated that his next bout, which will be the last on his current contract with Bellator MMA would be his final.
Initially, Bellator planned on promoting Emelianenko’s final fight in his home country of Russia but the recent invasion into the Ukraine nixed that idea.
There is no word yet on Emelianenko’s appearance again, as he seeks to end his career. However, Nurmagomedov has some ideas for a promotion between Eagle FC or Bellator.
“Why? Nurmagomedov stated. These two men were the faces of MMA. Fedor is the greatest fighter of all time, in my opinion, and Dos Santos was champion for a couple of years in UFC.
“These two guys they deserve [it] and the fans deserve [it] and for me it’s a very interesting matchup, too.”
When Emelianenko first announced that he planned to retire after two more fights, Dos Santos immediately jumped on the opportunity to call for the matchup following his exit from the UFC.
Although the fight didn’t end in their favor, there is renewed hope as Nurmagomedov announced his intention to talk to Scott Coker from Bellator about possible collaboration to bring it to fruition.
Dos Santos smiled as he told the audience why Emelianenko was so important to him.
” That was totally new for me,” Dos Santes said. “I’m a big, big fan of Fedor and I really believe like Khabib said, he’s the greatest. It was a wonderful time in MMA. He did amazing fights with ‘Big Nog (Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira). I didn’t actually fight at the time, but I was a huge fan.
“For me, being trained by ‘Big Nog,’ it was always my dream [to fight Fedor]. The biggest thing that I would like to achieve in my MMA career is to fight Fedor. So to hear that maybe possible now, it’s just amazing.”
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