Back in Russia, Fedor says he's probably not retiring

Yahoo! Sports

Thu Feb 17 10:00am EST

Back in Russia, Fedor says he's probably not retiring

Minutes after a bad loss, don't take a man's words at face value. It turns out Scott Coker was right, Fedor Emelianenko sounds like he wants to fights on.

The former PRIDE champ, who suffered a vicious beating at the hands of Antonio Silva, told the Russian media that he still has some fight left in him.

"I rushed to declare my retirement out of frustration. I will fight more. Possibly, I will return to the [Strikeforce] heavyweight Grand Prix," Fedor told LifeSports.ru (translation via Cage Potato). "I am confident that I am capable of having a few more fights. I didn’t make any analysis yet on why I lost. I need to recover. I can’t see very well yet."

Fedor's coaches downplayed the loss to Silva.

"Fedor is quite able to return to the tournament," Emelianenko’s striking coach, Alexander Michkov explained. "Everybody stumbles. This is not as terrible as everyone is making it out to be."

His Sambo coach Vladimir Voronov said Fedor is more motivated now than ever.

"He has a hematoma, but it will go. It’s very good that Fedor still has his fighting spirit, he is ready to break everyone now," Voronov said. "Most importantly for him is not to have any psychological pressure. The loss will make him train with triple the effort."

Is there any doubt Fedor will be re-inserted into the tournament if anyone else gets hurt? That's a bad break for guys like Shane del Rosario and Valentijn Overeem. Strikeforce is paying big money and wants to get maximum bang for its buck.