If Junior dos Santos takes care of business at Eagle FC 47, big things could be in store for the Brazilian heavyweight.
That is, if Eagle FC promoter Khabib Nurmagomedov gets his way. Dos Santos will face fellow UFC veteran Yorgan De Castro in the Eagle FC 47 main event on Friday at FLXCast Arena in Miami.
“If Dos Santos wins, I really want to make Dos Santos versus Fedor [Emelianenko],” Nurmagomedov said at the Eagle FC 47 pre-fight press conference. “He has to focus on Yorgan next because Friday he has a tough opponent.
“He has to stay focused but I want to talk to my friend [Bellator president] Scott Coker because Fedor is under Bellator contract. I don’t know what they’re going to do next with him but definitely we can talk and we can create some good stories.”
Emelianenko is expected to have his farewell fight with Bellator at some point this year. Coker and the California-based organization haven’t been opposed to cross-promotional ventures in the past, teaming up with Rizin Fighting Federation on multiple occasions. Emelianenko currently doesn’t have a bout booked, and Coker revealed that Bellator canceled plans to have “The Last Emperor” fight in Russia due to the ongoing conflict with Ukraine.
Dos Santos, a former UFC heavyweight champion, will enter Eagle FC 47 looking to snap a four-bout losing streak, all of which occurred against top competition — Ciryl Gane, Jairzinho Rozenstruik, Curtis Blaydes and Francis Ngannou. “Cigano” was excited to learn of Nurmagomedov’s potential plans.
“I’m a big, big fan of Fedor and I really believe like Khabib said, he’s the greatest. That was a magical time in the MMA world and when he was fighting he did those amazing fights with ‘Big Nog’, I wasn’t even fighting at that time but I was a big fan of them.
“So for me, because I trained with ‘Big Nog’ as well, it was always a dream. The biggest thing that I would like to achieve in my MMA career is to fight Fedor. So to hear that maybe possible now, it’s just amazing.”
For Nurmagomedov, it would be another big step for his growing promotion.
“Why not?” Nurmagomedov said. “Because these two guys were the face of MMA. Fedor is the greatest fighter of all time, in my opinion, and Dos Santos was champion for a couple of years in UFC. “These two guys they deserve [it] and the fans deserve [it] and for me it’s a very interesting matchup, too.”
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