Could Fedor Emelianenko's Comeback Hurt His Legacy? Depends on Who You Ask

There’s at least one major problem with trying to figure out if Fedor Emelianenko might spoil his legacy with a comeback to MMA at age 39.

That problem is, we can’t seem to decide exactly what Emelianenko’s legacy is to begin with.

Depending on who you ask, the former Pride FC champion is either a shoo-in for greatest heavyweight of all time or a charlatan who ran from tougher competition in the UFC only to get undressed in Strikeforce anyway, losing three straight fights during 2010-11.

That disparity makes the stakes fairly malleable for Emelianenko as he prepares to return to professional fighting for the first time since June 2012. After a brief flirtation with the obligatory American promoters, he signed with Nobuyuki Sakakibara’s fledgling Rizin Fight Federation and will make at least one appearance for the company in Japan on New Year’s Eve.

Once we knew that much, reports that his opponent will likely turn out to be professional kickboxer and 1-0 MMA heavyweight Jaideep Singh should have been no surprise. Any equation featuring a 39-year-old Fedor plus Japan was always going to equal a few easy fights for big money.

And the rumored money here is very big indeed:

The question is whether any of this a problem.

Unfortunately, there appears to be no good starting point to begin looking for an answer. Since there isn’t a real consensus on Emelianenko’s place in the sport’s history, it’s tough to know if he has anything left to prove—or, for that matter, much to lose.

Nonetheless, count Chael Sonnen among The Last Emperor’s detractors. Sonnen—who if nothing else knows a thing or two about devaluing a legacy—appeared on the MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani this week to call Emelianenko "definitely overrated" and insist history will judge him harshly.

"Fans assess Fedor constantly," Sonnen told Helwani, via MMAFighting.com's Marc Raimondi. "They have no idea what they're talking about … Fedor can give you a very good assessment of himself. He knows where he's at. So when he puts himself over there in Japan and goes, 'I can make a few bucks doing this, I can stay busy and I don't have to fight those guys in the UFC,' that ends the argument.”

Does it?

Or is this just another enigmatic decision from MMA’s most enigmatic legend?

We’ve never known what was in Emelianenko’s heart or in his mind. We don’t know for sure if he values his standing among the greats, though he’s always shrugged off suggestions he is one of the best ever. As in all things, any inference that this decision reveals some cowardice or avarice or deeply rooted pragmatism in him is just us guessing.

Perhaps the only real truth to be gleaned here is this: Surely how we feel about Fedor’s decision to cash seven-figure checks for the lightest possible workload says more about us than it does about him.

After all, we didn’t seem to mind too terribly when 39-year-old Anderson Silva returned to the cage after a two-year absence and fought a welterweight. Or when Randy Couture was cleaning up on guys like Mark Coleman and James Toney. We didn’t care when Bas Rutten turned back up after seven years of retirement and signed up for a fight against Ruben Villareal.

Why should Fedor be any different?

Answer: He’s not. The only difference is our own expectations, which are likely colored by our very personal and long-held opinions of the man.

Chances are, if you are already on board the Emelianenko bandwagon, you’ll suggest there is simply no way for him to improve his resume at this age, in this time. Therefore, instead of making the inadvisable decision to take a pay cut to get abused by guys like Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos in the UFC, he did the smart thing:

He went back to Japan, where they’ve always loved him and where they’ll pay him the most money.

If you are one of Emelianenko’s modern detractors then you see this as another instance of the fighter turning his back on the best competition. He did the easy thing:

He went back to Japan, where they’ll pad his pockets and hand him a few gimme wins.

And sure, we all feel some small measure of disappointment that Emelianenko will now spend the twilight of his career crushing cans overseas. But whose fault is that, really?

The guy who took the best offer?

Or the people who got their hopes up that this time he might do something to change our minds about him.

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