Mark Coleman works out Thursday at Caesars Palace in preparation for Saturday's fight against heavyweight champ Fedor Emelianenko. Photos by John Gurzinski. Pride fighter Mark Coleman greets Japanese fans in town to watch Saturday's heavyweight title fight against Fedor Emelianenko.

Fedor Emelianenko is a big man with an even bigger reputation. The heavyweight champion of the Pride Fighting Championships, Emelianenko is regarded by many experts as the finest mixed martial arts fighter in the world.

He's powerful, they say.

"Crushing power, killer-type stuff," said Frank Trigg, a one-time challenger for the Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight title and the color analyst on Pride's pay-per-view telecasts.

Emelianenko is athletic, with the size of a linebacker and the agility of a defensive back.

He's technically sound in nearly every area a fighter needs.

But Mark Coleman, who will challenge Emelianenko on Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center in the main event of Pride's first North American card, said forget everything you think you know about the 30-year-old Russian.

"Whatever you've heard about him? Well, it's all that and more," Coleman said. "He is a one-man fighting machine. He's good in all areas: Stand-up, on the ground. You name it, he can do it."

Coleman, a thickly muscled man who was a member of the 1992 U.S. Olympic wrestling team, will turn 42 on Dec. 20. He sighs at his recitation of Emelianenko's skills.

The obvious question is, if Emelianenko is that good, how does anyone beat him, much less a soon-to-be 42-year-old?

"I have to have confidence," said Coleman, who in 1997 submitted Dan Severn to become the first UFC heavyweight champion. "He is human, after all. I have to believe in myself. I was doing pretty well against him the first time, but the pace was pretty fast.

"I decided to take a break and I learned a lesson. You don't take a break against this guy. You take a break and you'll wind up submitting fairly quickly."

Emelianenko forced Coleman to submit to an arm bar at 2:11 of the first round when they met in April 2004 in Japan.

Emelianenko has only one pro loss and that was something of a fluke, as he was cut by an inadvertent elbow, so Coleman's showing against him was one of his toughest challenges.

But Coleman concedes he'll have to be better Saturday than he was in 2004, because Emelianenko's ability has continued to evolve.

And because Pride's fights are contested in a ring instead of in a cage like they are in the UFC, Coleman won't have the advantage of using the cage.

He said it will be no secret that he needs to take Emelianenko, who excels in judo, to the mat so he can resort to the ground-and-pound attack he's known for.

"I have to find some way to beat this guy," Coleman said. "It's in the back of my head that I need to get him up in the air and get him off the ground. If you get a guy off the ground, it takes away his strength and weakens him.

"I have to find a nice hard spot on the ground to slam him on to soften him up. He can wrestle as well. As I said, the guy is awesome."

And it will be an awesome fight, Coleman said, because, underdog or not, he'll attack to make sure the fans get their money's worth.

"I don't want to win a boring fight," Coleman said. "It does nothing for the sport and it does nothing for me. I'd rather lose an exciting fight than win a boring fight. Pride won't tolerate boring fights. If you win a boring fight, it doesn't matter. You won't get invited back."