Fedor Emelianenko is considered by most to be the greatest heavyweight to ever compete in mixed martial arts.

He put together one of the greatest winning streaks in the history of the sport, winning 27 consecutive fights over the course of 9 years, often against the best heavyweights in the world at the time. 

That was before a failed run in Strikeforce, of course, where he lost three consecutive fights and was written off as a fighter past his prime. It was a rough stretch, to be sure. 

But since his last loss to Dan Henderson in 2011, Fedor Emelianenko has begun putting together another winning streak. Even with a three-year retirement from the sport, Emelianenko had won four in a row heading into his Friday fight against former UFC veteran Fabio Maldonado. 

Rumors have circulated in recent weeks that Emelianenko could finally, after all the failed negotiations over the years, be making his way to the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Fedor himself noted earlier this week that he is closer than he's ever been to signing with the world's largest MMA promotion.

To top it off, Emelianenko's bout against Maldonado at EFN 50 aired on the UFC's Fight Pass service. Hype promos for the fight aired on UFC television. Ad blocks appeared all over the UFC's various social media and web properties. It was the perfect build to a fight that could finally lead Emelianenko to step into the Octagon later this year. The EFN production itself was one of the wildest and wackiest things we have ever seen, and that's a hefty statement in a sport where janky crapfests are the norm. 

All he needed was a win over Maldonado. 

He got the win. But what he didn't get was a performance that will have anyone clamoring to see him sign with the UFC. 

Emelianenko opened the fight looking just like the Fedor of old. Fast hands. Incredible power. Light on his fight. But then, Maldonado connected with a solid hook, dropping Emelianenko to the canvas. He made it back to his feet, but wobbled his way across the cage before falling over. In any other country in the world besides Russia, the fight would have been stopped as Maldonado battered Emelianenko.

It was a clear 10-8 scorecard, and yet only one judge ultimately scored it that way.

Emelianenko made it to the end of the first round, but he was never the same. He strung together plenty of punches, but Maldonado blocked most of them. Maldonado—long considered one of the most durable chins in MMA—weathered every storm Emelianenko put together. But curiously, Maldonado essentially stopped attacking for the most part after the first round. It was as though he was deflated the fight was not stopped in the first, and couldn't muster the energy to string together attacks. He repeatedly landed a jab on Emelianenko, but it wasn't enough. 

When the final bell rang, it seemed clear that the fight should be scored a draw. But the judges sitting cageside were assigned by the Russian MMA Union.

Take a wild guess who the President of said Russian MMA Union is. If you guessed Emelianenko himself, give yourself a gold star. Yes, the judges in charge of rendering a decision in Emelianenko's fight were, for all intents and purposes, judging a fight their boss participated in. 

So it came as little surprise that Emelianenko was handed two 29-28 scorecards, enough for the majority decision win. The lone judge who scored it 28-28 might find himself heading into Siberian exile in the next few hours. It was home-cooked judging at its worst, a perfect example of why legitimate regulation is needed in mixed martial arts events all over the world.

Imagine if Dana White decided to stop being just a tough guy on Twitter and stepped into the Octagon to face Jon Jones. Imagine White survived the fight (he would not) and managed to maybe hurt Jones at some point in the fight. 

And now imagine if White were the guy assigning the judges for his own fight. What do you think those scorecards would look like? 

Conflicts of interest run deep and wide in Russian sport, as does rampant cheating and doping. We should not be surprised by this atrocious gifting of a win to a fighter who did not deserve it. The only way Maldonado was going to walk out of that arena with a win was if he deaded Emelianenko and rendered him completely unconscious. And even then, the referee in the fight would have given Emelianenko every possible chance to be woken up by a punch from Maldonado

One thing you can forget about is seeing Emelianenko in the UFC. A strong performance here would likely have sealed the deal, giving the legend a chance to finally make his Octagon debut later this year. But after this performance, it will be a genuine surprise if the UFC comes calling. The novelty of finally seeing Emelianenko in the Octagon would be neat. But hard truths would soon follow when the UFC's top 10 or 15 heavyweights beat him senseless. And if that happened, there would be no Russian referee to save him, no Russian judges he employed to grant him a terrible decision.

There would only be a shell of a formerly great heavyweight fighter who is past his expiration date.