Fedor Emelianenko, widely considered the worlds top mixed martial arts fighter and king of Combat Sambo, lost to Bulgaria’s Blagoi Ivanov this past weekend by a score of 8-5 in the semifinals of the 2008 World Combat Sambo Championships in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Emelianenko and Ivanov first met back in February of 2008 at Russia’s Presidents Cup where Emelianenko outpointed the Bulgarian for his ninth straight victory in Combat Sambo competition.
Ivanov apparently used the experience to formulate a winning gameplan for their second encounter. Emelianenko was dominated from the outset and was in danger of losing 8-1 until the Russian scored a knockdown in the final minute of competition to add four points to his total.
In the end the deficit was too great to overcome and the former PRIDE heavyweight champion had to settle for a bronze medal, his first since the year 2000.
Emelianenko made no excuses for the loss, admitting that Ivanov beat him “Fair and square”, but this author wonders if Fedor’s time spent in Thailand filming “The Fifth Execution” with Michael Madsen and Rutger Hauer left him unprepared for the surging Bulgarian.
Fedor was still in Thailand as recently as two weeks ago and has also been making the rounds as Affliction’s media darling, promoting the upcoming reality series “Fighting Fedor” and his pending battle with Andrei Arlovski at ‘Day of Reckoning’ on January 24 in Anaheim, California.
Ivanov went on to win the gold medal after easily dispatching Germany’s Stefan Janos in the 100+ kg weight class.
