Long strange Aleks Emelianenko interview

Not sure how much of this is true or him just making crazy statements, or if it's even translated right. But good to check out anyway.  Aleks is one of those fighters that back when I watched him fight in Pride, my heart would pound whenever he was about to fight.  You just knew something crazy was likely to happen.  Article is a lot longer than this bit pasted below.

http://www.themmanews.com/?p=2329

Aleksander Emelianenko. Nicknamed Death.

Three time combat sambo champion and one of the most extravagant masters in MMA jumped into a conversation with the journalists of SE.

We met Emelianenko junior on the Krasin Street, near the corporate HQ. We’ve reminisced how Nikolai Valuev has stumbled into SE the same way. We talked for an hour, and after that the giant Nikolai went to catch a cab. At that time barely anyone knew his face – the cars were afraid to stop for Valuev. Many would cross the lane into oncoming traffic.

The 27-year-old Aleksander Emelianenko, who’s acknowledged by the whole world as one of the best MMA fighters, is rarely recognized on the streets of Moscow. Although in New York and Tokyo he can barely walk around. Even, when we met with his brother, famous Fedor Emelianenko, not too long ago in the crowd of the Kursk train station. We found a quiet corner and sat down, without anyone recognizing him. And just to the side of us, the kiosks of pirated discs were flooded with the fight bootlegs of the Emelianenko brothers. It was a fantastic feeling.

Aleksander has knocked out giants in such a way, that at times it seemed as if the floor was giving way. The worried doctors often times had to get the mouthpiece with their hands off of his opponents, and not everyone was able to raise their hands after a meeting with Emelianenko. No wonder the Americans gave him the nickname The Grim Reaper.

He came in wearing tall army boots. Sideways, bent his head to squeeze into the door. We remembered the site mesilovo.ru, which specified Sasha’s height at 198 centimeters…

Your brother, the legendary Fedor, mentioned that, as a fighter, you are more talented than him. Do you feel like that?

- Of course I feel like that. I don’t know what I don’t have that Fedor does. I am the strongest. Better than anyone. I’m ready to fight with any fighter in the world – whoever is number one, whether in ratings, or by recognition. I will mess anybody up.

It’s sad, that we can’t even train with my brother. He lives in Stary Oskol, I live in Petersburg. We’re both travel year-round.

You used to practice together before?

Yes. And we went at it at full strength. I boxed better. I was beating Fedor with my hands. And I was practicing without a coach, – I was training my hands by myself; whatever I felt was right. I just got a boxing coach not too long ago, Yuri Razumov. I realized that my understanding of boxing that I had at the time was…

Not even boxing, something else?

I didn’t know crap! Just now, I finally saw what boxing was. Now, I trained my hands to be good. I’m boxing at a level higher.

It has to be an old interview because he said Nog was the champion in the UFC. Nog hasn't been champion for 2 years. Also I don't buy for a second UFC offered the Pride guys to fight for $500 bucks a fight. Their minimum is around $5,000 to show now, and it was $2,000 at it's lowest. I wonder why no one ever asks about his failed medical exams and if he could ever reapply for a licence in the US.