Fedor Emelianenko appeared to announce his retirement in the ring following a TKO victory over Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson this past weekend, but it seems that something was lost in translation in the heat of the moment.
“Unfortunately and regretfully I want to say that perhaps my career stops here on my win in Japan where I started and I’m finishing my career here,” Fedor had said on the mic via a translator. “Thank you very much for supporting me over the years. That’s the end of my tour.”
However, Fedor later clarified that he’d meant that this would be his last ever fight in Japan, not the last fight of his entire career.
“I’m doing my tour and these are my final fights,” Fedor explained at the post-fight presser. “I wanted to do a fight in Japan, I want to do a fight in U.S., and I want to do Russia. So Japan, it was my retirement fight in Japan. So I’m not retiring.”
Scott Coker also suggested following the event that Josh Barnett could be a potential opponent for Fedor in the next leg of his retirement tour.
The two men were originally scheduled to fight at an Affliction show back in 2009, but the fight had to be scrapped on short notice after Barnett tested positive for steroids, with the promotion then folding not long afterwards.
