Throughout a four-year run in PRIDE, Fedor Emelianenko got past the likes of Mirko “Cro Cop,” Mark Hunt, Mark Coleman, and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira to solidify his status as a heavyweight legend. By the time Emelianenko was done with his unbeaten stint there in 2006, Ryan Bader had yet to have his professional MMA debut. But cut to 2018 and Bader (26-5 MMA, 4-0 BMMA), now Bellator’s 205-pound champion, has a shot at becoming the promotion’s first simultaneous two-division champ. In order for that to happen, though, Bader has to get past the guy he’d watched on VHS tapes as a PRIDE fan in his college days.
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