Fedor Emelianenko and Islam Makhachev are officially SAMBO Grandmasters. The two received the sport’s highest rank this week at the 50th World SAMBO Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, with FIAS President Vasily Shestakov presenting the titles, according to footage posted by FREAK.MMA on X on Nov. 6. MMA Mania and Yahoo Sports both covered the ceremony.
There were extras. Emelianenko, who just turned 50, received a special watch marking the birthday. Makhachev was given the Russian Honoured Master of Sport in SAMBO badge. A day earlier, Red Corner MMA reported on X that both men had been formally recognized as Sambo Ambassadors at a separate ceremony in Tashkent, where each was handed official letters of credence ahead of the World Championships.
Emelianenko hasn’t competed in more than three years. His last fight came at Bellator 290 on Feb. 4, 2023, at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, where Ryan Bader stopped him by first-round TKO in their heavyweight title rematch. That loss closed a career built largely in PRIDE, where “The Last Emperor” put together the run that still has people arguing he’s the best heavyweight the sport has produced. He never fought in the UFC, and the GOAT conversations around him have never needed it.
Makhachev, 35, is still active and still collecting. He’s the reigning UFC welterweight champion and owns the longest win streak in UFC history at 17, a number he can still add to. He also has a strong case as one of the best lightweights ever. MMA Mania noted, though, that his remaining time in the Octagon looks limited, so the streak may not have many more entries left in it.
The World SAMBO Championships continue in Tashkent, with both men now attached to the federation as ambassadors.
My take: this is the right pairing, and the timing is smart. You get the man who defined heavyweight dominance in the 2000s next to the man doing the same thing in the UFC right now, and the link between them is a grappling art that casual fans still mostly think of as Russian wrestling in a jacket. Sambo deserves better PR than that. It’s the home of some of the nastiest leg lock entries in combat sports, and its takedown game is built to flow straight into finishes rather than parking on top. Every time someone complains that a Makhachev fight was boring because it hit the mat, they’re watching sambo and missing it. If Shestakov wants the federation’s new ambassadors to change anything, a few clips of Makhachev’s top control with the positions explained would do more than any ceremony. As for the hardware, Fedor getting a watch at 50 is perfect. The man spent a decade making opponents’ time run out early.