You know the drill: Lose two fights and drop a weight class.
Despite a somber post-fight retirement speech following his Feb. 12 shellacking at the hands of Brazilian "Bigfoot" Antonio Silva, the past "Emperor" is likely to make a last-ditch effort to go out on a high note when he returns to the Strikeforce cage this summer.
July 2011, to be exact.
And with the wily Russian staring down the barrel of three consecutive losses, the former WAMMA heavyweight champion is pulling out all the stops to insure that scenario doesn't come to fruition.
Even if it means a drop to 205-pounds in the twilight of his career to face fellow thirty-something PRIDE veteran and current Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Dan Henderson.
That's according to M-1 Global's Apy Echteld (via ESPN.co.uk):
"He agreed. He's ready to fight. With his progress from training, I can only think he'll be back the way he was. If he doesn't win, he'll make his own decisions like he does now. If he stops, he stops. But if he wins, I think he'll continue fighting."Emelianenko was bounced from the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix Tournament earlier this year after the cageside doctor deemed him unfit to answer the bell for round three of his quarterfinal bout against Silva.
Aside from the shock of his second consecutive loss, it was clear "The Last Emperor" was being manhandled for most of the fight, leaving many fans wondering if what was once considered the greatest heavyweight MMA fighter in history was outdated and overmatched.
Retirement talk was quickly scrapped a few days following the "Fedor vs. Silva" event and Emelianenko was back to work following the recent announcement of his participation in Strikeforce's upcoming July show.
To help prepare him for his next fight, Emelianenko was shipped off to the Netherlands for his first International training camp since 2005.
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