Fedor Emelianenko: UFC contract is on the table, closer than ever to signing

Stop me if you've heard this one before:

Fedor Emelianenko is close to signing a contract with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). This time, though, "The Last Emperor" says it's the real deal, revealing on "The MMA Hour" that the world's leading mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion has extended an offer to him.

"Yes," Emelianenko said via a translator. "In a word, yes. That possibility does exist," confirmed the former PRIDE FC Heavyweight champ as transcribed by MMA Fighting.

"I always wanted to fight for UFC and I would fight for UFC, but at this moment we're looking at the deal and the deal has to satisfy both parties -- them and my organization," Emelianenko said. "Until there's no friction, until we are 100 percent in terms of seeing eye-to-eye, we are all basically in limbo."

That could explain this and this.

Fedor will next compete at EFN 50 against UFC castaway Fabio Maldonado, which is set to do down this Friday (June 17, 2016) in St. Petersberg, Russia. After the bout, he will be a free agent and free to sign with whomever he pleases. Remember, Fedor recently stated that he'd be open to fighting Brock Lesnar if the opportunity presented itself, and it's something that still holds true for the Russian-born combatant.

Emelianenko will be represented by Kamil Gadzheiv, an EFN exec, who will assist Fedor in his next contract negotiations. Despite several failed attempts in the past, Fedor says this time around, he is closer than ever to putting pen to paper with UFC.

"Right now, I'm much closer compared to when I just came back to MMA," Emelianenko said. ... "Yes, we did receive an offer. But, there are some finer points that we wanted to discuss."

If those points have to do with co-promotion, it seems UFC is all about that these days.