Fedor Emelianenko

Fedor Emelianenko fullname, Fedor Vladimirovich Emelianenko was born on September 28, 1976 in Rubeshnoe Lugansk region. He is nicknamed as “The Last Emperor”. This Russian heavyweight mixed martial arts fighter is the current World Alliance of Mixed Martial Arts Heavyweight Champion and the last holder of the Pride Heavyweight Championship. Since March 16, 2003 he has been reigning the heavyweight champion.

Emelianenko’s mother, Olga Fedorovna, was a teacher and his father, Vladimir Alexandrovich Emelianenko, was a welder. Emelianenko has a older sister and two younger brothers. Aleksander Emelianenko a professional mixed martial artist is his brother. His other Brother Ivan has is also trained, but has not competed at his brothers' level.

Emelianenko completed his high school in 1991 and graduated with honors in 1994. He also served in Russian Army as a military firefighter from 1995 to 1997. He married his first wife Oksana in 1999 and in 2006 he broke up with his wife and began a new family with girlfriend Marina. His hobbies include reading, listening to music and drawing.

Emelianenko has a martial arts background in Judo and Sambo. Vasiliy Ivanovich Gavrilov was his first Sambo and Judo coach. His current coach is Vladimir Mihailovich Voronov. In 1997, he received the official certification of a "Master of Sports" in sambo and judo and he became part of the Russian national team. In 1998 he won a bronze medal in the Russian Judo Championship.

On June 23, 2002 Emelianenko debuted at Pride 21 against Dutch fighter Semmy Schilt and won by unanimous decision. His only defeat till date is against Tsuyoshi Kohsaka at the King of Kings 2000 Block B event on December 22, 2000.

A former member of Russian Top Team (RTT), Emelianenko now trains at Red Devil Sports Club in St. Petersburg in Russia and is a member of Vos Gym in Holland. He is considered as one of the well-rounded mixed martial artist of all-time. He has excellent submission skills and is technically sound on his feet. His stellar takedowns, takedown defense, and ground control skills make him pound nightmare and strong fighter.

Emelianenko has the distinct honor of being one of 80 Russian sporting champions, cultural icons and national heroes to carry the Olympic torch in St. Petersburg in 2008. He is also considered as the best heavyweight fighter in the world for the last six years by major publications like MMA Weekly, ESPN etc.

Fight History

Anderson Silva

Anderson Da Silva well known as Anderson Silva born on April 14, 1975 in Curitiba, Brazil. Anderson is the current middleweight champion. Nicknamed as ‘The Spider’ he is also a former Shooto Middleweight Champion and last Cage Rage Middleweight Champion.

Anderson started training in martial arts at the age of 14 in Tae kwon do. He has a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu and judo. He did not start professionally till 2000, before that he used to work as office clerk at McDonald's. He began his career with Mecca Organization in his native Brazil in the year 2000, but he lost his first match to Luiz Azeredo by decision. He won the next 2 bouts. He fought in the Shooto circuit in Japan in the year 2001 with Tetsuji Kato and after a unanimous decision won the Shooto match. Against Hayato Sakurai, Anderson captured the Shooto middleweight title in August 2001.

He has won titles like UFC Middleweight Champion, MECA Champion, Cage Rage Champion, many victories in Pride, Shooto, and Minotauro Fight. He is one of the dangerous strikers, toughest and most successful UFC fighters in history. He also holds the record for most consecutive wins in the UFC.

Anderson was the member of the famous Chute Box Academy. In 2002, Silva began fighting in Pride. In 2003 he left chute citing unhappiness with management. In September 2004, Anderson debuted at the Cage Rage promotion in England. He defeated well-known striker Lee Murray by decision at Cage Rage 8 and he successfully defended his Cage Rage belt till 2006.

The UFC signed him for multi-fight contract in the year 2006, the UFC heavily promoted Anderson Silva. He made his debut at UFC -Ultimate Fight Night 5 on June 28, 2006. He knocked out his opponent The Ultimate Fighter 1 contestant Chris Leben in 49 seconds into the first round. Chris Leben had gone undefeated in the UFC with five consecutive victories; this victory was a good debut for Anderson. In his next match he defeated Rich Franklin by TKO (strikes) at 2:59 in the first round to win the UFC Middleweight Title.

Anderson Silva continued to defend his title with a win against Dan Henderson in March 2008. He also won the UFC 97- Redemption against Thales Leites by Unanimous Decision on April 18, 2009. With this event, Anderson is still continuing his winning streak with 10 continuous victories in UFC from April 2006.

Fight History

Chuck Liddell

Chuck Liddell was born on December 17, 1969 in Santa Barbara, California. He is well known as "The Iceman" though his original name was Charles David Liddell. Liddell is a former American mixed martial artist( MMA) champion.

Liddell debuted in Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in 1998 and finished with a decision victory against Noe Hernandez at UFC-17. Then he won another fight by decision against Jose Landi-Jons. He lost to Jeremy Horn in the first round Arm Triangle Choke (TKO) in UFC-19. However after that loss he won all the matches against reputed players like Guy Mezger, Jeff Monson and Kevin Randleman. By continuously winning
10 UFC, Chuck Liddell was soon well-known as a devastating striker.

Before starting with UFC, Liddell had experience in Kempo and Koei-Kan karate. He was known for his extraordinary knockout ability and takedown defense during his college days itself. He graduated in 1995 with B.A in Business from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, he was also a Division I wrestler there. Under John Lewis he got a purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

In the year 2003, Chuck Liddell lost to Randy Couture in UFC 43. He had to face Tito Ortiz, a former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion in the second round at UFC 47 and won via TKO. This winning streak gave a new life to his Championships, by winning continuously other 6 UFC events. Liddell's got a chance of rematch against Couture on April 16, 2005 at UFC 52 and finished victorious in the first-round knockout.

At UFC 97, on April 18 Liddell got defeated against Mauricio "Shogun" Rua in the first round by TKO. After this fight UFC President Dana White announced that Liddell has retired from fighting.

Liddell happens to be the first UFC fighter to be on the cover of ESPN The Magazine in May 9, 2007. He has also made several film and television appearances. On January 29, 2008 he has released his autobiography named “Iceman: My Fighting Life”.

Fight History

BJ Penn

Jay Dee "B.J." Penn was born on December 13, 1978 in Kailua, Hawaii. He is a professional mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner. He holds the current Ultimate Fighting Championship in the lightweight category. He has notable wins over Matt Hughes, Takanori Gomi, Jens Pulver, Caol Uno, Duane Ludwig, Matt Serra, Rodrigo Gracie, Din Thomas, Renzo Gracie and Joe Stevenson. In the World Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Championship he is the first American-born winner (Mundial) in the black belt category (2000). A former UFC welterweight champion, Penn is also a coach. His nickname is "The Prodigy".

During the age of seventeen, Penn started training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu after being introduced to it by his neighbor, Tom Callos. Callos had put in fliers in local gyms appearance looking for people to train with, BJ's father Jay Dee Penn had rung Callos and said his boys were interested. Whatever Callos knew he taught BJ and his brother.

Penn began training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Ralph in 1997 Gracie, eventually earning his purple belt from Gracie. He motivated to Nova Uniao where he was eventually awarded his black belt in 2000 by Andre Pederneiras. In the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship held at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil he won the black-belt making him the first non-Brazilian to win the event. Many people need a decade to get a black belt, Penn had achieved this, with only three years of training, not only received a black belt but defeated people who had been training their entire lives on his way to winning the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship.

Penn once made a name for himself when he self-promoted a match between him and the current World Lightweight Champion, Japan Native, Takanori Gomi during “Rumble on the Rock 4". Penn claimed the title with a rear naked choke after winning the match. Along with the lightweight division gone, Penn was given a chance to jump up in rank to the Welterweight division to fill in a contention slot for the title being held by Matt Hughes. Hughes was considered a strong favorite for the fight and defended his title for five years. This quite lead to a shock when it only took Penn 4 minutes to get Hughes into a hold and claim the title for him.

On May 8, 2005 B.J. Penn was arrested outside a nightclub in Waikiki, Honolulu after he allegedly hit a police officer. Penn was among a crowd outside the club when he grabbed the officer and struck his face, Penn was trying to retrieve his brother from the fracas and shoved someone to his side to get into the crowd, who turned out to be the policeman according to his lawyer. Penn received one year of probation on December 11, 2007 and pled no contest to the charges in August 2007.

Fight History