Eagle FC owner Khabib Nurmagomedov is planning to work with Scott Coker to book a megafight between Junior Dos Santos and Fedor Emelianenko.
Dos Santos is slated to take on Yorgan De Castro this Friday at Eagle FC 47 at FLXcast Arena in Miami. ‘Cigano’ will be headlining the main event for his debut fight in the promotion. This weekend will also mark his return to action after being let go by UFC in early 2021 after he dropped four in a row.
Ahead of the contest, Nurmagomedov has made his ambitions for Dos Santos to compete against Fedor clear. Khabib expressed his desire to work with Bellator to book the former UFC heavyweight champion against their greatest ever.
During an Eagle FC 47 pre-fight news conference, Khabib spoke about his plans to contact Bellator president Scott Coker and arrange the competition.
“If Dos Santos win, I really want to make Dos Santos vs. Fedor fight. But he has to focus on Yorgan for next, because this fighter here is tough opponent. I want to talk with my friend, Scott Coker, because Fedor is under Bellator contract. I don’t know what they’re gonna do next with him, but definitely we can talk, and we can do something. We can create some story. …
“Why not? These two guys was long time the face of MMA. Fedor was the greatest fighter of all time in my opinion, and Dos Santos was heavyweight champion a couple years in UFC. These two guys, I think they deserve and fans deserve. For me, it’s a very interesting matchup, too.”
Dos Santos agrees with Khabib Nurmagomedov
UFC president Dana White had infamously tried many times to get Fedor Emelianenko to fight in the UFC. White outright refused to even hold further talks after reportedly being laughed at by Fedor’s management in negotiations.
As a former champion in the UFC, Dos Santos may get the opportunity to finally compete against the renowned Russian.
“I’m a big, big, BIG fan of Fedor, and I really belive – like Khabib said – that he is the greatest. That was a magical time in the MMA world when he did those amazing fights with ‘Big Nog.’ I wasn’t even fighting at that time, but I was such a big fan of them.
“For me, because I trained with ‘Big Nog,’ as well, it was always kind of a dream, the biggest thing I would like to achieve in my career would be to fight Fedor. So to hear that may be possible now, it’s just amazing.”
Fedor is on the last fight of his current deal with Bellator. In what many believe to be his retirement fight, Coker has stated his intentions to put on a big show stating Fedor “deserves to have the largest platform and the biggest fight and the biggest event to hold his final fight.”
