VIDEO: Disgraced MMA Legend Submits Vlogger After Suspicious Restart to Fight

One MMA legend's questionable late-career activity only got stranger with his most recent fight in Russia.

Author:
Drew Beaupré
Publish date:
May 26, 2023 11:05 PM EDT

Aleksander Emelianenko has been fighting professionally for nearly 20 years, but his most recent MMA bout provided one of the sport's strangest spectacles in recent memory and appears to be yet another stain on the formerly well-respected fighter’s career.

The younger brother of the legendary Fedor Emelianenko, Aleksander’s fighting days appeared to be over after he was found guilty of sexual assault in 2015 and sentenced to a four-and-a-half year prison sentence. “The Grim Reaper” was released on parole and returned to MMA in 2017, but in recent years he’s spent more time trying his hand at boxing and custom rules fights.

Nothing from Emelianenko’s recent career could have prepared fans for what happened at REN TV Fights in Moscow, where the 41-year-old stepped into the cage with Russian vlogger Evgeny Ershov.

Ershov backed Emelianenko to the cage with punches late in the first round, but after the referee stepped in the vlogger apparently indicated he’d like the fight to continue. The bout was restarted with seemingly no argument from the referee, and in the second round Ershov easily finished a takedown before he immediately tapped to a kimura that Emelianenko grabbed from bottom position.

Seeing social media personalities like Ershov participate in combat sports has become a regular occurrence in recent years, but the way Ershov's fight with Emelianenko played out certainly seems to indicate there were some questionable factors at play behind the scenes.

Prior to Emelianenko's late-career run of strange fights and the deplorable actions that landed him in prison, the Russian established himself as a dangerous heavyweight talent while competing for PRIDE and later for M-1 Global. “The Grim Reaper” never experienced the same success as his brother Fedor, but in his prime he was a dangerous striker with a penchant for finishing opponents in the first round.

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