For years, Fedor Emelianenko was known as the greatest heavyweight in the sport of mixed martial arts. The ease in which he would defeat his opponents put him in a class above the rest. The biggest question about Emelianenko was always about whether he could compete with the best stars in the UFC. We never saw that happen when the fans were clamoring for a fight with Brock Lesnar or Randy Couture, but now, after winning two straight against Jeff Monson and Satoshi Ishii, there is talk of finally seeing Emelianenko under the UFC banner.

Whatever fight he would be brought into the UFC for would be huge for the promotion and would likely sell pay-per-views, but would the fans care?

We've seen this lot recently with fights being booked that would have been fun to watch years ago. They can be hard to get behind. Wanderlei Silva fought Cung Le at UFC 139 in a fight that fans would have loved to see years ago. The fight lived up to the hype, winning "Fight of the Night" honors, but I would say the initial feeling towards it was that of being too late for fight fans.

Should the UFC and Emelianenko finally decide now is the time to join forces, a likely fight with Josh Barnett or Cain Velasquez have been thrown around. Barnett will be fighting against Daniel Cormier in the finals of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand-Prix in May, while Velazquez will fight Frank Mir at UFC 146 in May. If Emelianenko is set to fight in June or July as reports say, then neither of those fights makes sense.

In actuality, most of the top heavyweights in the UFC are booked in fights already, which make this bad timing for Emelianenko to enter the promotion. To bring him in and not pit him against one of the top level guys is an issue. While it would be a good test for a Stefan Struve or Matt Mitrione to fight the Last Emperor, I don't know if it would interest the fans much.

Depending on the opponent, I think the fans would want to see Emelianenko in the Octagon, but it can't be a one-time deal and it needs to be against an established star. If either of those prerequisites aren't met, there may be a problem.

For a look at the best fights for some of the most popular fighters in the UFC and 2011 division recaps, go here.

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Hobson Lopes has been a fan of mixed martial arts since the days of Tank Abbott and can be followed on Twitter @HobsonLopes.

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