Biography

Alexander was born on August 2, 1981 in Stary Oskol as the third child of the teacher Olga Fedorovna Emelianenko and the gas-electric welder Vladimir Alexandrovich Emelianenko. He has two older siblings, Marina and Fedor, and a younger brother, Ivan (born in 1988). Fedor is the reigning Heavyweight champion of PRIDE, while Ivan is currently in training.
On the 30th of July 2007 Alexander's wife Olga gave birth to a daughter Polina.

How it all began

Alexander made his first contact with martial arts at a very early age. His elder brother Fedor, often had to babysit him, and as Fedor didn't want to miss his Sambo practice, he took his younger brother with him. Alexander first just observed the older kids and the training, but soon he started mimicking their movements and doing pull-ups and push-ups falling in love with the magic. The door of professional martial arts practicing was gradually opening.

He started his Sambo training when he was introduced into the elementary school, but at that time, kids of his age were already no match for him. At the age of 16 he has already got the title of "Master of Sport" in Judo. Alexander kept training with his childhood Sambo coach, Vladimir Mihailovich Voronov, and his brother Fedor, until June of 2006.

He began his mixed martial arts career as a member of the Russian Top Team, trained together with the first generation of Russian RINGS competitors, such as Volk Han and Andrey Kopylov. After his brother Fedor had won the PRIDE Heavyweight title, a rift grew between the Emelianenko's and Russian Top Team. Both Emelianenko brothers left the Russian Top Team and joined the St. Petersburg based Red Devil Sport Club, which is managed by Vadim Finkelstein.

Fightography

Being 22 Alexander debuted in Pride. His opponent was experienced Assuerio Silva who was 8-2-1 and won two bouts inside Pride ring prior to the moment of their encounter. Although Alexander wouldn't finish the bout early, he looked much better than his Brazilian adversary throwing him around the ring and attacking in stand-up. By the way not everyone knows that, but Alexander had also participated in one not so very well-known tournament where he'd earned an easy and fast win.

His second official bout Alexander had during Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2003 against another Brazilian Angelo Araujo who'd built up his record with 3 victories in Meca Vale Tudo tournaments and had had been IVC 14 runner-up. In the exciting bout referee stepped in to check the cut of the Brazilian after Alexander pounded on him in the parter. Just 30 seconds before the end of the second round referee calls the fight to hand another W to the Russian.

2004 - Pride Bushido 3. The next opponent is Australian mixfight Spartan Reality Fight champion Matt Foki with the perfect 6-0 record. When the Australian got punched a bit in the exchange he decided that giving a try to clinch could be slightly better idea. However Alexander got the takedown just to keep on pounding his opponent. Back on the feet - the same story, Foki clinches, gets taken down and eventually submits to a choke.

In August,2004 Alexander faces the toughest test of his young professional career in Mirko CroCop Filipovic who'd accumulated over 35 fights in both K-1 and Pride shows. Alexander started aggressively punching and kicking while the Croatian striker avoided any significant damage constantly blocking the attacks and counterpunching. The moment Alexander's storm was slightly weathered he got caught with a vicious trademark of CroCop - high kick to the head.

Alexander returned to the ring after a seemingly hard loss in October to face an experienced Brazilian Carlos Barreto in the superfight in the context of Mix-Fight M-1 Middleweight GP. Barreto being Universal Vale Tudo champion and Pride and UFC veteran himself was a well-known fighter although his career was starting its inexorable decline. Fighting mainly on the ground during the whole bout Alexander's domination was quiet obvious. The judges would eventually give the victory to the Russian athlete.

With no thoughts of taking it easy Emelianenko decided to come back to Pride the same month to take on James Thompson in what lasted mere but nonetheless epic 11 seconds. No need to tell the result of this bout everyone knows about. The next two bouts didn't last much longer. Alexander won against IAFC 1 champion Ricardo Morais and dutch kickboxer Rene Rooze from Peter Aerts team within 30 seconds of the opening rounds.

Alexander's next big challenge awaited him at Pride shockwave 2005 where he was scheduled to face off with 1996 Olympic judo champion Pawel Nastula. He was relatively new to the world of MMA but nevertheless possessed all the tools to not look over him. A couple of times it seemed as if the Polish found the key to the victory but every time Alexander would escape the imminent danger. Towards the end of the first 10 minute round when Pawel got exhausted by multiple unavailing submission attempts it was Alexander who successfully applied submission against the Olympic Champion.

In 2006 Emelianenko took part in Pride Open Weight Grand Prix. His first opponent at Pride - Total Elimination Absolute on May, 5th was top-ten Josh Barnett who eventually reached the final of the GP. The Russian was dominating in stand-up in the first round while Barnett was on the receiving end of the most strikes even getting his nose broken. Unfortunately, Emelianenko got tired and Josh caught him in the keylock forcing him to tap in the second round of the hard fought battle.

In several months Alexander Emelianenko collided with the former sparring-partner and teammate Sergey Kharitonov in the alternative bout for the Grand Prix 2006 Finals when Mirko CroCop eventually won the whole thing by defeating Josh Barnett for the third time.It all started with the strikes exchange. In a couple of minutes Sergey knocked Alex down and rushed for the kill. He didn't succeed in it soon and the referee returned the action back to the feet. The second half of the fight continued with the exchange and Sergey found himself on the wrong side of the strikes, as at one point he got caught with two mighty right punches. He lost his composure and fell to the ground where the reeling Russian was finished by his Red Devil compatriot. This bout against top-ten heavyweight Kharitonov was Alexander's last fight inside the Pride ring...

Shortly after Alexander travels to the Netherlands to prepare for 2H2H Pride & Honor championship. Originally he was scheduled to fight superheavyweight Antonio Silva. Later the name of the opponent changed though. Fabricio Werdum is a typical BJJ practitioner who used to spar with CroCop back in the days. This change turned out to be pretty bad for Alexander who prepared to face the striker but ended up fighting submission specialist. The fight almost immediately hit the ground where the Brazilian softened Alexander up whereafter he went on to catch him in a choke.

Past the disappointing loss Alexander took a short pause. There was a rumor Emelianenko was about to lock horns with Minotauro Nogueira at Pride 33. Besides Alexander planned to try himself in professional boxing. Neither of this has come true so far.

In 2007 the best Red Devil representatives partook in the April show in Saint Petersburg called Clash of the Nations. That event was organized by then partners bodogFIGHT (now defunct) and M-1 MFC and was broadcast on Pay-per-View. Among the guests of honor were Vladimir Putin and Silvio Berlusconi. Alexander was slated to clash with Erik Pele who touched the scale with 150 kg. Pele (10-2 then) was experienced fighter fresh off the huge win over Antonio Silva where he stopped the Brazilian with the strikes in the first, although Eric had no other significant accomplishments. Alexander clearly controlled the pace and finished Eric with KO in the first.

In summer of 2007 M-1 MFC held the next major event. The fight of the evening promised fireworks since Emelianenko was scheduled to face off with the most efficient striker in MMA in Gilbert Yvel. Unfortunately, just two weeks before the date the Dutch KO specialist suffered an arm injury which kept him off the exciting bout. The main event for the "Battle on the Neva" (river in Saint Petersburg) was in jeopardy. Another Dutch submission specialist in Jessie Gibson took the fight on a short notice. In the opening minute of the bout Jessie managed to take Alexander down and control him from above. It didn't help him though as the Russian secured a kimura en route to adding another W to the record.

Later on Emelianenko signed a multiple fight contract with an upstart Hardcore Championship Fighting. His Canadian debut took place in October when he faced UFC/Pride veteran Dan Bobish. Originally he was scheduled to fight Wesley Correira who then magically disappeared and didn't return any calls. In a pretty rapid bout Dan was constantly rushing for the takedown but his plans were nixed by Alex' defense who then caught Bobish in a guillotine choke.

The last bout to date took place in Saint Petersburg in the context of the second edition of M-1 Challenge. Alexander had bad luck again as his respective opponent's name changed almost on a daily basis. One of the athletes to have withdrawn was Fabio Maldonado. Finally the opponent's name was revealed. Silvao Santos as a late replacement didn't present any significant danger to Emelianenko. However it was frustrating not to know what strategy you should apply in the coming fight since you don't know what to expect from your opponent. On April, 3 the superfight took place at the Ice Palace. Alexander engaged into the battle instantly. To his credit Santos withstood the initial attack and shot for the takedown himself only to catch a powerful strike and get finished on the ground seconds later.

At the moment Alexander prepares for the next battle schedule to take place on July, 19 in the inaugural event of clothing mogul turned MMA promoter Affliction where Russian will lock horns with seasoned striker and always dangerous Paul "Headhunter" Buentello who once faced Andrei Arlovski in the battle for the UFC heavyweight title.

Mixed Martial Arts record

As of April 2008, Alexander has compiled a professional record of thirteen wins and three losses. Seven wins are by knockout and four by submission.

Honorary titles and apellations

3-time World Combat Sambo Champion (2003, 2005, 2006)
1999 European Combat Sambo Champion
Russian Judo Champion

Official website

http://www.alex.mixfight.ru/

Written by Blitz, Michael Mazur, Scorpion