There were times when Fedor Emelianenko crushed the best fighters in the world, but at the same time, almost no one in Russia talked about this. Winning the championship belt in a fight with Noguera, winning the heavyweight Grand Prix, a superfight with Cro Cop - none of these landmark events even received a line in sports news on Federal TV. Only a small handful of hardcore fans from one and a half MMA sites followed the success of The Last Emperor.
Everything began to change in mid-2005, when the creator of M-1 Global, Vadim Finkelstein, was able to promote a number of fights from Pirde tournaments to the NTV channel. Fedor began to receive recognition, the press and the number of his fans began to grow by leaps and bounds.
And after just a couple of years, Emelianenko's first fight in Russia as a superstar of the Japanese promotion gathered a full house at the Ice Palace in St. Petersburg, where they even had to open additional tiers to accommodate spectators.It happened on April 14, 2007, at the Bodog Fight Clash of The Nations tournament.
Fedor's rival was the star veteran of the UFC, the silver medalist of the Olympic Games in Greco-Roman wrestling, the American Matt Lidland, whose name meant a lot to fans of mixed martial arts in those days. On his account there were 20 victories in 24 fights and many scalps of defeated eminent rivals. He was a well-deserved, experienced and dangerous opponent, and therefore there could be no underestimation of the opponent either by Fedor or by his fans.