-Why didn't Fedor just sign with the UFC? - Fedor interview
"I never met Dana White, never spoke to him on the phone, never exchanged e-mails,"."However, I did read a lot on the Internet about what he said in regard to me and Vadim. I also read e-mails that he sent to Vadim; all of his correspondence was very upsetting. The contract that we were presented with by the UFC was simply impossible, couldn't be signed, I couldn't leave. If I won, I had to fight eight times in two years. If I lost one fight, then the UFC had the right to rip up the contract. At the conclusion of the contract, if I am undefeated, then it automatically extends for an as yet unspecified period of time, though for the same compensation.
"Basically I can't leave undefeated. I can't give interviews, appear in films or advertising. I don't have the right to do anything without the UFC's agreement. I could do nothing without the OK from the UFC. I didn't have the right to compete in combat sambo competition. It's my national sport. It's the Russian sport, which in his time our president competed in, and I no longer have the right to do so. There were many such clauses; the contract was 18 pages in length. It was written in such a way that I had absolutely no rights while the UFC could at any moment, if something didn't suit them, tear up the agreement. We worked with lawyers who told us that it was patently impossible to sign such a document."
-May 2008.Fedor finished his study as a student of chair of physical training at Belgorod State University. It's understandable that Fedor's schedule wouldn't let him graduate as quickly as other students normally do. The topic of his thesis was "Methodology of physical skills' development training 13-15 year old sambo practitioners".
-Fedor was 12 when he started training grappling under Vladimir Voronov, who remains his trainer to this day. For 20 years Voronov has been as much a part of Fedor's life off the mat as on it.
Fedor (teenager) aspired to join the Russian national team. He didn't partake in life's pleasures but instead spent all of his time studying and training. Two factors were constant in his life then: a lack of money and the presence of his family and team.
Frequently there wasn't enough money for food. Fedor and his brother Aleksander were constantly growing and training, and their mouths were not the smallest to feed. The food Olga Emelianenko grew in her makeshift garden was often not enough, and come winter a garden was impossible. "My mother not only loves me as a son," Fedor has proudly said, "but respects me as a person."
Voronov pitched in, dropping off bags of grain or potatoes. The harder life became, the closer Fedor and his family and his team grew. The more they depended on each other's existence, the less money mattered.
-Following his return from the army, Fedor once again fell into serious training with the Russian national sambo and judo teams, but there was not enough to eat, no money for uniforms or shoes.
-He had married his childhood sweetheart, Oksana, near the mats and in front of Voronov and his team at the Vladimir Nevsky Club,the gym where he had trained since he was 11. The trainer helped the young couple renovate their small temporary flat while they waited impatiently for the arrival of their daughter, Mashenka, and their first studio apartment that the city would give them.
"In the army I was never disrespectful, never cocky, though I could always stand up for myself,". "And I always tried to help those younger than me. I did have to fight a lot but only at the very start."
The problems with compensation for athletes worsened.During this time Fedor was accepted onto both the Russian national sambo and judo teams. Though he was representing his country, he had no income.
The fighters were thankful for any opportunity to work and feed their families.
With no future or prospects of doing what he loved doing, Fedor tentatively turned to MMA as a way out. After much trepidation he floated the idea of fighting in the sport with his trainer.
Voronov was not against it, thinking that Fedor would be able to handle himself in MMA. Leaving the Russian judo and sambo teams for the totally unknown, with no certain future, was an immensely hard decision. But with the blessings of his wife and trainer, Fedor stepped into the ring.
-Not surprisingly Fedor is known very well in Stary Oskol. Every taxi driver, shopkeeper and hotel receptionist has a story about him. All praise his humility, with some saying he is the most humble person they know and praising the way he has remained one of them despite his success. A particularly amusing story involves Fedor winning a fight in Japan and then returning home. He landed at the town airport, then had to call a friend to pick him up because he had forgotten to arrange a ride home.
He drives a Toyota that the city gave him for his achievements, lives in an ordinary apartment...
PART OF FEDOR's HISTORY
Tags: fedor emelianenko affliction banned tim sylvia andrei arlovski josh barnett matt lindland donald trump ufc pride hep
