On Friday afternoon, the EFN 50 show took place from St. Petersburg, Russia and aired live on UFC Fight Pass.
In the main event of the evening (video highlights here), MMA legend and former longtime PRIDE Heavyweight Champion Fedor Emelianenko fought in an epic, memorable battle with former UFC contender Fabio Maldonado.
The opening round of the Fedor-Maldonado bout was one for the ages, as Fedor brought the onslaught from the opening bell, only to quickly find himself nearly being stopped by Maldonado. Fedor was dropped and rocked multiple times standing in the round, and took a ton of punishment from Maldonado on the ground as well. Fedor was bleeding profusely, but survived and managed to get out of the first round, which Maldonado won huge.
Things didn’t calm down any in the second round, as both guys were tired, but managed to have another very eventful round. Fedor attempted a flying knee early in the round, which was quite the sight, before connecting and hurting Maldonado with a number of big shots. Things got a lot more competitive in the second half of the round, however.
Finally, what will likely end up being a candidate for Fight of the Year in 2016, Fedor and Maldonado reached the third and final round. Both guys were tired and their faces were a complete mess as a result of the big shots each landed in the first two rounds.
Throughout the majority of the final round, it was Fedor blasting away at Maldonado, seemingly trying to finish the fight to ensure a victory after the hellacious first round he endured. Once again, however, there were several moments where Maldonado landed big shots on Fedor as well. While the fight may not have had a finish, you certainly can’t say both guys didn’t try their hardest to get one.
In the end, it came down to the judges scorecards and despite what most would score as a pretty clear-cut 10-8 first round in favor of Maldonado, apparently the judges felt different. The scores came in 28-28, 29-28 and 29-28 in favor of Fedor, giving the MMA legend the victory over Maldonado by Majority Decision.
Below are quick-match results of the entire EFN 50 event:
EFN 50: Fedor vs. Maldonado Results
– Fedor Emelianenko def. Fabio Maldonado via majority decision (28-28, 29-28, 29-28)
– Vitaly Minakov def. Peter Graham submission (armbar) in RD 1
– Kirill Sidelnikov def. Ruben Wolf via decision
– Akhmet Aliev def. Matej Truhan via decision
– Anatoly Tokov def. Vladimir Filipovic via decision
– Sergey Pavlovich def. Chaban Ka via TKO (strikes) in R1
– Vadim Nemkov def. Mikolaj Rozanski via TKO (strikes) in R1
– Rasul Mirzaev def. Dioginis Souza via TKO (strikes) in R1
– Abdulsupyan Alikhanov def. Artem Shokalo via decision
– Georgy Kichigin def. Vladimir Tyurin via submission (armbar) in R1
– Jack McGann def. Abdula Dadaev via TKO (strikes) in R1
– Alexander Dankov def. Dmitriy Maryukhin via TKO (strikes) in R1
– Valentin Moldavsky def. Daniel Doerrer via submission (guillotine) in R1
– Vasiliy Zubkov def. Sergey Tovkan via submission (triangle)
– Marina Mokhnatkina def. Ekaterina Torbeeva via submission (armbar) (R1, 0:25)
#Fedor looked horrible Maldanado lit him up in te 1st round luckily he was in #Russia so he got the decision #EFN50 pic.twitter.com/FmURODD5y9
— PARLAY WOLF (@parlaywolf) June 17, 2016
BAHAHAHAHAH #fixedfight for Fedor. Thats brutal. I would rather have seen him gracefully lose #EFN50 #Fedor pic.twitter.com/CwYgY1qXHw
— Jonathan Glen (@jonathanglen) June 17, 2016
#Fedor will need a bit of ice with his vodka tonight ? #EFN50 pic.twitter.com/VHeGdOYRib
— Tracey Trudeau (@traceytrudeau) June 17, 2016
#Емельяненко #FihtNights #Fedor #Russia #SPb pic.twitter.com/uUHwRf1jD8
— 12 игрок |В.В.М| (@FcZenitSpb) June 17, 2016
