One of the greatest mixed martial artists of all time never got the chance to compete in the Octagon.
There were apparently different reasons why Fedor Emelianenko was never signed at the UFC.
Nevertheless, many still regard 'The Last Emperor' as the best heavyweight of all time and one of the largest in sport, regardless of the weight class.
Emeliansko still shared the cage with different UFC stars during his remarkable career, even if he never stepped into the Octagon.
One of these matchups in particular led to a moment when Dana White praised the Russian surprisingly, because he had been critical of him in the past.
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Fedor Emeliansko earned the respect of Dana White after he had completed Tim Sylvia in 2008
In 2008, Fedor Emelianenko became the top star for the newly tidy disorder promotion that looked around to compete the UFC by signing a few top names.
The very first event of the promotion, 'Affliction: banned', would see 'the last emperor' confronted with a former UFC champion who had left the promotion earlier that year.
Tim Sylvia registered three heavyweight defending defenses over two separate rule before he competed for the last time in the Octagon on UFC 81, where he was defeated by Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.
Sylvia claims that Dana White himself blocked his UFC recovery after the promotion was not happy with him who signed with misery after he was released from his contract.
Unfortunately for the former champion, life outside the Octagon did not get off to a good start after he quickly fell through Emelianko and was submitted in just 36 seconds.
White, who ran a UFC event on the same night, was asked about the victory of the Russian because he was critical of his career and the opponents with whom he was confronted with in the past.
White told Kevin Iole that although this result did not change his position about whether he wanted to bring Emeliansko to the UFC, he was impressed by this last victory.
“That does (my opinion changes),” he admitted. “Tim Sylvia was a real opponent.”
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The MMA promotion of Affliction did not take much longer after making Fedor Emelianenko their top star
After he put it against each other in their first event with the UFC, Affliction MMA became a short -lived company.
The clothing brand was only able to set up two events, one in July 2008 and one in January, both of which were viewed by Fedor Emelianko.
A third event would take place on 1 August 2009, but this was canceled when half of the main event, Josh Barnett, tested positive for a forbidden substance.
On July 24, Affliction announced that the promotion was no longer and that the clothing brand would go back as a sponsor of the UFC.