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On Kimbo:
Aleks Emelianenko: In reality, as a fighter, as a fighter he’s weak. For me anyway. My promoter [Vadim Finkelshtein] suggested this fight to his promoters, that I go there and fight Kimbo. And they’re not taking the fight. They realize that for me he’s too weak.
I won’t be fighting with him, playing with him. I’ll go there and tear him apart, bite him in two. Exactly like it was with me and [James] Thompson, whom it took almost three rounds for Kimbo to put away. No. He’s to be congratulated on one hand, though. …
What does he need? For people to know about him. For people to have seen him. Everyone earns money anyway they can these days. He’s not a fighter, he’s not a sportsman. I’d say he’s more like a showman. I can say this about him.
As a sportsman he’s very one-dimensional. Hands? Is that all? These days everyone can use their hands. When fighters at a decent level compete, you won’t understand who he was before. A boxer or a wrestler. … I train with boxers. I used to beat -- I now beat world champions. I box with them. I’m not a fighter that fought with fatties, with who knows who on some field or something. That’s not a display of his prowess as a fighter. It’s just a show. They are elements of a show.
On the UFC:
Aleks Emelianenko: I also wanted to fight in the UFC . But as a Russian fighter, I’m not interesting to them. They are interested in their own, in Americans. That’s why they didn’t let me compete in their organization. They were saying that “We don’t want Aleksander to fight for us.” Because I’d arrive there, beat everyone and then take the belt back to Russia. They don’t need that.
Those organizers, promoters, they need their own person. That’s how they make their money. And that’s how they carry themselves, the UFC. I know that as of right now, they’ve ruined relationships with many and that many fighters have left them. They are now facing some very serious competition, and I think they’ll fall. I think they’ll fall to the second tier. To the place where they were, when Pride still existed.
Pride was better; Pride was number one in the world. So I think that it’s criticism of the organizers -- it’s not a criticism of the fighters. They’re worthy sportsmen. Good fighters. It’s a criticism of the organizers, of the promoters. They take everything and just wreck it. Instead they should be strengthening everything, making everything stronger, stronger and stronger. But people are leaving them.
Instead they now have very serious, very worthy competition in the world. And not that much time will go by before things change.
****Aleks is thinking the same things that Hardcore Fans is thinking, Im not surprised that he's thinking that way*****
From Surviving the Streets of Russia to MMA: The Story of Aleksander Emelianenko, Part 2
Aleks Emelianenko: In reality, as a fighter, as a fighter he’s weak. For me anyway. My promoter [Vadim Finkelshtein] suggested this fight to his promoters, that I go there and fight Kimbo. And they’re not taking the fight. They realize that for me he’s too weak.
I won’t be fighting with him, playing with him. I’ll go there and tear him apart, bite him in two. Exactly like it was with me and [James] Thompson, whom it took almost three rounds for Kimbo to put away. No. He’s to be congratulated on one hand, though. …
What does he need? For people to know about him. For people to have seen him. Everyone earns money anyway they can these days. He’s not a fighter, he’s not a sportsman. I’d say he’s more like a showman. I can say this about him.
As a sportsman he’s very one-dimensional. Hands? Is that all? These days everyone can use their hands. When fighters at a decent level compete, you won’t understand who he was before. A boxer or a wrestler. … I train with boxers. I used to beat -- I now beat world champions. I box with them. I’m not a fighter that fought with fatties, with who knows who on some field or something. That’s not a display of his prowess as a fighter. It’s just a show. They are elements of a show.
On the UFC:
Aleks Emelianenko: I also wanted to fight in the UFC . But as a Russian fighter, I’m not interesting to them. They are interested in their own, in Americans. That’s why they didn’t let me compete in their organization. They were saying that “We don’t want Aleksander to fight for us.” Because I’d arrive there, beat everyone and then take the belt back to Russia. They don’t need that.
Those organizers, promoters, they need their own person. That’s how they make their money. And that’s how they carry themselves, the UFC. I know that as of right now, they’ve ruined relationships with many and that many fighters have left them. They are now facing some very serious competition, and I think they’ll fall. I think they’ll fall to the second tier. To the place where they were, when Pride still existed.
Pride was better; Pride was number one in the world. So I think that it’s criticism of the organizers -- it’s not a criticism of the fighters. They’re worthy sportsmen. Good fighters. It’s a criticism of the organizers, of the promoters. They take everything and just wreck it. Instead they should be strengthening everything, making everything stronger, stronger and stronger. But people are leaving them.
Instead they now have very serious, very worthy competition in the world. And not that much time will go by before things change.
****Aleks is thinking the same things that Hardcore Fans is thinking, Im not surprised that he's thinking that way*****
From Surviving the Streets of Russia to MMA: The Story of Aleksander Emelianenko, Part 2
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