Fedor Emelianenko is one of the greatest heavyweight fighters of all time, and heavily involved in the Russian MMA Federation, but he's not a fan of what he saw last week.
Fedor spoke out about several children’s bouts that were held at this past week's World Fight Championships Of Akhmat event. The most notable of the fights saw the children of Chechnya ruler Ramzan Kadyrov compete. Both were victorious and the spectacle of children in the cage was too much for Fedor to deal with.
Fedor took to social media to criticize the fights.
“What happened at the tournament in Grozny is unacceptable and, moreover, cannot be justified,” he wrote on social media. “Needless to say that kids under age of 12 cannot even attend MMA fights (in Russia) as spectators, but here we had little ones as young as eight beating each other up in front of happy adults. I am outraged by the fact that the head of Chechnya was watching over it. Didn’t [the Chechen] sports minister tell him about the fact that children under 12 cannot participate in MMA under any circumstances?”
Not everybody was on Fedor’s side when he voiced his opinion, including UFC veteran Khabib Nurmagomedov, World Series Of Fighting Flyweight Champion Magomed Bibulatov, WFCA President Abuzayed Vismuradov and the aforementioned Kadyrov.
This post was even made by Bibulatov on his Instagram page:
A state representative from Chechnya, Adam Delimkhanov has even threatened to take action against Emelianenko. The Russian Sports Military will also be looking into the matter as well.