was announced that Emelianenko was unable to meet the licensing standards of the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC). Emelianenko was replaced by Gary Goodridge. Emelianenko denied the rumors about a positive test for Hepatitis B, commenting that he was unable to compete because he was late for his medicals, arriving two days after the scheduled date for his medicals with the CSAC due to visa issues. Due to the health and privacy rules in California, the CSAC was not allowed to comment why Emelianenko was denied a license, but a member of the CSAC commented on a radio show that Emelianenko was not and would not be cleared in California, and that this would stand for all of the United States of America. Emelianenko was also expected to appear at a planned upcoming Affliction event (Affliction: Day of Reckoning) on , but was removed from any plan due to still having licensing problems on . After Affliction Returning to Europe, on at M-1 Global's event M-1 Challenge 9 in Saint Petersburg, Emelianenko defeated South Korean Sang Soo Lee via KO (punches) in the first round. Emelianenko left Red Devil Sport Club on . At the event ProFC 5: Russia vs. Europe on , Emelianenko defeated fellow Russian Ibragim Magomedov by TKO in 51 seconds, after Magomedov was close to knocking Emelianenko out but, in the punching exchange, Emelianenko managed to cut Magomedov near his right eye, which prompted the referee to stop the fight after the ring doctor checked the injury. Emelianenko was slated to compete on in South Korea at the event Fighting Mixed Combative 2 against Bulgarian Sambo practitioner Blagoi Ivanov, who had defeated Emelianenko's brother Fedor in the 2008 World Sambo Championships, but Ivanov injured his hands in a previous match against Kazuyuki Fujita, which left the event date in the air, so Emelianenko decided to withdraw from the event altogether. After a year without professional MMA matches, Emelianenko's next fight was on at ProFC: Commonwealth Cup against Swedish wrestler Eddy Bengtsson. The fight ended in under a minute as Bengtsson appeared to fake being knocked unconscious from a light punch. Emelianenko founded his own training team, AE Team, which he started to present in his fight against Bengtsson. A month later, on at the event Azerbaijan vs. Europe organized with the support of the Azerbaijan Pankration Federation (APF) and held in Baku, Emelianenko defeated Serbian fighter