Newly retired Heavyweight MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko spoke to HDNet's Inside MMA last night to explain the reasoning behind his decision and talk about what might convince him to come out of retirement too. Fedor retired after shellacking Pedro Rizzo in the first round at their bout on the M-1 Global: "Fedor vs. Rizzo" card in St. Petersburg, Russia, on June 21, 2012.

That win gave him a nice 3-fight-win-streak (Rizzo, Jeff Monson, Satoshi Ishii) to go out on after losing 3-straight against Dan Henderson, Antonio Silva and Fabricio Werdum to end his Strikeforce run. Let's see what he had to say to Inside MMA after the jump...

He explained his decision to retire in terms of family:

"I've got daughters, and they're growing up without me. This is very, very difficult for me. Family is always first place for me, so this is the time. "People will accept my decision. They gotta understand that it's my decision and I've got to go.You shouldn't be disappointed that I'm leaving. Life is going on. I want to thank everyone who has supported me. Eventually the time to go was coming. My time has come. We'll try to make some new MMA stars."

Fedor also refused to rule out a return to fighting, even against Brock Lesnar:

"I'm not promising, but anything is possible."

So it's official fight fans, we can continue to cling to our hopes for the dream mega-fight of 2009 to finally happen, now that both men are shells of what they were only three years ago.