On October 23, Bellator 269 will take place at VTB Arena in Moscow, Russia. The headlining bout of the event will be a heavyweight clash between legendary Russian fighter, one and only, the last Emperor, Fedor Emelianenko vs. Timothy Johnson.
The last Emperor did not fight for a long time. His last battle was in 2019 against Quinton Jackson, known as Rampage. He earned a first-round TKO victory against former UFC fighters.
In his last 5 contests, he earned 3 victories against Chael Sonnen and Frank Mir, too. But suffered losses against Ryan Bader and Matt Mitrione.
Unlike his rival, Timothy Johnson was active and busy during these years. Since 2019, he has fought 5 times and earned 3 victories. His last battle was against Valentin Moldavsky at Bellator 261. In that 5 rounder bout, he suffered a unanimous decision loss against a Ukrainian Sambo specialist.
Bet on Fedor Emelianenko vs. Timothy Johnson with 1xBetFrom my point of view, it is one of the most brutal fights to make a prediction. This card is built around the last Emperor, but we have to realize that nobody can defeat time. Fedor is already 45 years old, and facing such an opponent like Timothy is a considerable challenge.
However, the ground game of Fedor will be a huge advantage. In the standing, both are dangerous since Fedor has a really bad chin after suffering KO loss or the 5 times already.
From my point of view, Fedor is a way more smart fighter with tremendous experience. He has the ground game and striking, too. So I think that Fedor will take this fight.
He is opening this bout as the favorite with the odds around 1.7. but earning a victory via KO/TKO/Submission/DQ or anything like that has the odd around 2.2, which is pretty high because most of his fights are ending in the first round.
In addition to that, Timoty has suffered KO losses already 3 times. In a word, from my point of view, Fedor's early victory, which has the odd around 2.2, is the best.