Interview Fedor Emelianenko 4th april 2011 at Special Sports in Amstelveen.
Tekst: Cyril Garcia
Fotografie: Harmen Bakker
In het prachtige Special Sports centrum in Amstelveen was er bij de kickbokstraining het Red Devil sport team onder leiding van Fedor Emelianenko aanwezig voor een training. Na een uur flink gezweet te hebben moest Fedor zich snel opfrissen want de Meet & Greet zou al snel beginnen. Voor de Meet & Greet had de aanwezige pers nog tijd om wat vragen aan Fedor te stellen. Het interview met Mixfight nam de meeste tijd in beslag. Fightstartv.com was aanwezig om de beelden te schieten, dit zal later gepost worden.
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Mijn excuses aan de mensen in de wachtrij die wat langer moesten wachten voordat zij met Fedor op de foto mochten.
MF: Fedor, first i would like to thank you for this oppertunity and your time to do this interview with Mixfight.nl.
You already been here for a week and trained at different gyms. How do you like the training in the Netherlands?
F: i have a very warm relationship with the Netherlands. I have alot of good friends here that help me with my training. Think about Apy Echteld, Jochem Bos, Peter Thijssen, Remco Pardoel and Bert Kops. I treasure those relationships and try to meet to their expectations and try to learn as much as possible from them.
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MF: What is for you the big difference between the training here in the Netherlands and the training in Stary Oskol? The Dutch are famous for their Muay Thai and striking, are you looking to improve your standup here?
F: unfortunatly in Russia we don’t have such strong and skilled Muay Thai fighters. Thats why we come here to train and learn as much as possible. Learning the training drills and bring it back home to Stary Oskol where we can keep training it what we have learned here in the Netherlands.
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MF: In Februari you fought Antonio “Big Foot” Silva. It seemed you had a problem with his size and weight advantage. Looking back, was this the reason you lost the fight?
F: no i don’t think so, it was not the size or weight advantage that caused my loss. Its just a fight and anything can happen. The gameplan did not worked out the way i wanted it. But the weight was deffinitely not the reason.
MF: There were many rumours about you beeing upset right before the fight because your friend and spiritual father was not there with you. What is your reaction to these rumours?
F: those are just rumours and its not true. My spiritual father was next to me.
MF: Do you consider dropping to light heavyweight? And possibly fight Dan Henderson for the light heavyweight title?
F: yes i have talked about it with my manager Vadim Finklestein. But as far as i know, there is no offer made by Strikeforce to fight as a light heavyweight.
MF: At the end of the fight against Antonio “Big Foot” Silva you announced that you might retire. You are now back in training and seemed motivated. How do you feel about it now?
F: for me it was a dissapointed moment when i lost the fight against Antonio Silva. It was not a moment of weakness but at that particular moment it was the way i felt. Back in Russia i talked about it with my management and my spiritual father and my decision now to continu fighting.
MF: If you decide to retire, have you thought about your next career? We know you have political ambitions and also acting ambitions.
F: i do not consider to retire at the moment. So i don’t think about my future career or playing in movies. I don’t think beeing a moviestar is something for me. In the future i would like to be usefull to people. Everything is in gods hands and the future will show what path god has in mind for me.
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MF: Did you like acting?
F: it was intresting. I learned alot about the movie industry but its not my thing. There were moments you had to wait long but at the end it was fun to do, but i don’t think its something i will keep on doing.
MF: What is your reaction about Zuffa taking over Strikeforce? Did you saw it comming? Did M-1 know about it?
F: the Strikeforce Heavy weight tournament will continue and the fighters will keep on fighting for Strikeforce. I consider myself a fighter and thats my focus. All other things are for my management.
MF: Were you suprised by it?
F: i was not really surprised. For me it makes no difference for which organisation im fighting as long as i can fight.
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MF:What are you doing outside of your training.
F: most important is to spend as much time as possible with my family. But i am currently also building my own house and that is a big project that consumes alot of my time.
MF: Do you still train with your brother Alexander Emelianenko? I see you brought Kirill and some other Red Devil fighters with you.
F: alexander is currently in a trainingscamp preparing for his upcomming fight in the Mountains. He has a fight at the end of april so he has to be ready for it.
MF: Are you planning to bring Alexander with you to the Netherlands in the future?
F: yes thats possible, he wanted to come this time but something went wrong so he stayed with his camp .
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MF: What do you consider your best fight in your career?
F: its hard to say, i find this a difficult question to answer. I train very hard and serious for each fight. Maybe my fans can answer this for you “laughs”.
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MF: If you could have a rematch, against who would you like to fight?
F: It would be Antonio Silva and Fabricio Wedrum.
MF: I want to thank you for answering these questions.
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