8 UFC Dream Fights Fans Never Got To See

5. Brock Lesnar Vs. Fedor Emelianenko

For so long, Fedor Emelianenko was Dana White’s white whale. Largely viewed as he greatest MMA fighter of the 2000s, White was absolutely desperate to have the Last Emperor compete for UFC.

After the Affliction Entertainment organisation folded in 2009, White and Emelianenko had advanced talks about the Russian being brought in to fight UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar. Despite a contract offer of a reported $2 million per fight, talks collapsed after Fedor’s management company would only accept a deal that saw his fights co-promoted between the UFC and the Russian M-1 Global promotion.

Fast forward to 2012, and Dana went hard to bring Emelianenko out of retirement with the lure once more of a fight against Brock Lesnar. At that point, Fedor was quick to state how he was happily retired.

Of course, the MMA icon eventually came back out of retirement in 2015 and is currently signed to Bellator MMA – with Emelianenko due to face Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson this December.

Fedor is viewed by many as the greatest ground 'n' pound artist in MMA history, while Brock is seen as one of its all-time hottest draws. With Lesnar now the one retired from the fight game, this is one fight that fans will sadly never see.

Even before those talks of a Lesnar fight, Emelianenko regularly flirted with a move to the UFC, with Randy Couture mooted as a UFC opponent as far back as 2007.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.