Fedor's options limited at this stage

In 2003, Pedro Rizzo and Fedor Emelianenko would have been a heckuva matchup to make.

Rizzo still was arguably at the peak of his UFC campaign and Fedor was just beginning his dominant run in Pride. While it wouldn’t have been the highest-rated matchup possible in the heavyweight division, of course, it would’ve been somewhat compelling.

Nearly a decade later, Fedor vs. Rizzo feels like an aging veteran trying to win a “gimme” matchup against someone he’s been set up to defeat. The fight won’t prove that Fedor’s reign of dominance once again is renewed, as victories over Jeff Monson and Satoshi Ishii as well as Rizzo aren’t going to re-establish Fedor as the No. 1 heavyweight in the world.

It’ll only prove that Fedor needs to be in the UFC to get a tough challenge.

When you look at the pool outside of the UFC/Strikeforce banner, the talented heavyweights available are few and far between. Outside of Rizzo, the biggest names available who fit that description are perhaps Sean McCorkle, Andrei Arlovski and Bellator’s Cole Konrad. There are a limited amount of matchups that make sense for Fedor. He is too experienced and too savvy to take on local, regional fighters across the US or worldwide. It’s not like he can take a fight with a midrange fighter on a small-time card and be facing competition that makes sense.

Rizzo makes sense in a lot of ways: He’s still a name, he has a number of quality victories on his record and he’s still good enough for a decent payday for the champion under the M-1 Global brand. It may not be as tough a fight as it would have been 10 years ago, but that’s part of the reason why M-1, the promotion of which Fedor is a partial owner, would pursue a fight with someone such as Rizzo. It’s a payday and a winnable fight for him.

As, for that matter, would be a fight with someone such as McCorkle or a rematch with Arlovski. Both are tough fighters who would not be guaranteed victories for Fedor, but it’s not as if he can book a fight with someone such as Cain Velasquez in Moscow either.

You have to take what you can, sometimes, if you don’t want to fight for Zuffa, the parent company of UFC and Strikeforce. As much as we want to complain that Fedor isn’t fighting top-notch competition like we want him to, and like he was until he departed from Strikeforce after a three-fight losing streak, this is as good as he can do right now.

That’s what happens when you lose as much leverage as Fedor has.

When he was the heavyweight king of the world, Fedor could dictate the terms under which he fought after Pride was sold. M-1 could ask for anything it wanted because it had the best chip in MMA: the undefeated, undisputed No. 1 heavyweight in the world. After he tapped out against Fabricio Werdum and was stopped by Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva and Dan Henderson, he and his handlers at M-1 lost the ability to dictate those terms.

Seeing Fedor reduced to fighting guys such as Rizzo and Ishii, without a stop under the Zuffa banner to see if he could hang with the top of the heap, is a sad way to wind up for the man who once was thought to be nigh unbeatable. But until he signs with the UFC, these are the types of matchups to expect.