Fedor’s brother Aleksander Emelianenko has always been the outspoken one in the family and after watching his sibling lose his third fight in a row on Saturday night, having not lost in the 10 years prior to that, he wasted no time in stating who he thinks is to blame.
Aleks is in a better position than most to assess the situation since he himself joined up with Fedor for his latest training camp, the first time the two, who’ve had a rocky relationship in the past, have done so for quite some time.
It appears that Emelianenko was less than impressed with what he’s saw and in an interview with Lifesports.ru he blasts the lack of effort shown by Fedor’s main coaches.
“They sat like two amoebas, and did not know what to say. They were asked direct questions and would say, “It is difficult to say… we will see in the fight,” – what kind of a coach says that? Only one who doesn’t understand the sport. I just call them ‘Stopwatch’ and ‘Towel’. That’s as much use as they are, that’s it,” Aleks stated angrily.
Now Aleks hopes that Fedor seizes the reigns, ditches his coaches and gets his career back on track.
“Fedor could train himself, he must take on it personally, to rethink many of the training points to learn and develop. Suffer and work! We’ll talk with Fedor – whether he wants to change something in his preparation. If he wants to, I will make the effort.”
It’s highly questionable whether Fedor will actually take heed of Aleks passionate words however. It’s been apparent for some time that the legendary fighters training methods are somewhat antiquated and stale, yet it’s Fedor himself who’s desire to stay close to his family and out of the limelight that has ultimately lead to this situation.
At the age of 34, and having frequently admitted that he sees fighting as purely a job to provide for his family, the motivation to really change things up and start a new reign of dominance just doesn’t seem to be there.
