Aleksander Emelianenko is once again engaging with the police in his native Russia following yet another drunken incident.
He is accused of attacking a 63-year-old man in a Moscow bar following a dispute about the man’s volume.
The man, an army veteran, was celebrating his birthday was some friends. He alleges that Emelianenko took issue with the amount of noise coming from the table and immediately sprang into attack.
Emelianenko, via a spokesperson, denies the accusation and says that it was the man and his sons who started the violence following the initial interaction.
He initially avoided police attempts to contact him but in the end visited a police station voluntarily to give a statement.
Media were waiting on his doorstep when he finally exited the house – he spent 12 hours telling people to go away – and took the above snap of Emelianenko looking bloated and disheveled.
In other recent incidents Emelianenko has gotten into a drunken altercation on a domestic flight in Russia, then taught a seminar drunk when he arrived at his destination, the video of which caused much amusement in the Russian MMA world.
But the worst incident, one which made headlines, was when two girls accused him of rape some weeks ago. The charge quickly dropped when it emerged the women were young hookers, and the dispute was over an amount of money to be paid.
Emelianenko allegedly reneged on his promised sum – in fact, turned out to have no money at all – but the matter was dropped. One of the females in question has accused him of being extremely rough with her but no charges have been pressed.
There is no doubt that Emelianenko’s drinking is out of control lately. Rumors of alcohol problems have circulated for years – Sergey Kharitonov has told some stories of it – but Emelianenko has largely avoided public embarrassment until now.
At one point he was one of the heavyweight world’s top prospects. But when the California State Athletic Commission removed him from the Affliction 1 card at the last-minute, a rumor quickly emerged that he had been diagnosed with Hepatitis C.
CSAC declined to reveal the reasons for his removal, citing privacy laws, and Emelianenko has only once tried to dispel the story. That was when he produced an Italian-language certificate saying he had been tested and found clear.
But he has never tried to obtain a license in the US since that initial denial and he has never taken a test in a recognized jurisdiction, leading many to believe that there was substance to the initial rumors about his health.
He is due to rematch Mirko ’CroCop’ Filipovic at Legend II in St Petersburg next month but must first determine how much damage his arm has suffered during this latest drunken escapade. He is currently receiving medical attention.
