According to Alistair Overeem , Fedor Emelianenko declined to face him in his return fight. Instead, Emelianenko will be taking on Tim Johnson in the main event of Bellator 269 on Oct. 23, a decision Bellator president Scott Coker says Emelianenko made based off of rankings. But Overeem (47-19) says Emelianenko (39-6 MMA, 3-2 BMMA) didn’t only turn him down once – he’s been trying to fight him for over a decade now. “We tried to make a little bit that Fedor fight, and that was kind of radio silence on that end,” Overeem said on “The MMA Hour.” “But that would be something I was interested in.” He continued, “We tried to make that fight 2010, when he fought Werdum and I fought Brett Rogers – declined. After he lost to Werdum, we tried to make that fight