MMA heavyweight legend Fedor Emelianenko has been hospitalized due to COVID-19.
Regarded as one of the best fighters in MMA history, Emelianenko took to Instagram to confirm that he's tested positive for COVID-19 and has been hospitalized due to the virus.
“I feel fine,” Fedor wrote, according to a translation by RT Sport. “I am going into recovery. I’m grateful to the doctors and medical staff for their care and hard work.”
The 44-year old former PRIDE heavyweight champion last fought in December 2019, when he knocked out Quinton "Rampage" Jackson under the Bellator banner at Bellator 237.
This past December, Bellator President Scott Coker commented on a potential return for the Russian-born legend:
“I really wanted Fedor to fight his retirement fight not in front of just the officials and have the staff and be on a closed environment in a bubble,” Coker told MMA Junkie. “I really want Fedor to finish his career in front of 30,000 people in Moscow, to be honest – Bellator MMA’s first fight in Russia … do a fight in Moscow. For him, the prodigal son has returned. Fedor is the greatest fighter of all-time, and he’s now coming home to retire and put his gloves up and hang it up to retire.”
“I feel we’ve waited so long for Fedor to fight, hoping that the pandemic would thin out,” Coker said. “And now that it’s getting close and I can see light at the end of the tunnel for the pandemic to go away, I really want to wait and to do these fights in a proper stadium, especially the one we do in Moscow. I want to do something very big for him, because to me, it’s like he’s the king, and the king is returning from the battlefield.”
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