Career
Yemelyanov took up boxing while serving in the Soviet Navy in Leningrad Oblast. He never held a national title, placing second-third in 1961, 1965 and 1967, but was successful internationally, winning the European Cup and the World Army Championships in 1963. He was a career naval officer and worked as a boxing coach in Severomorsk, where he died in an accident aged 35.
Since 1985 an annual boxing tournament has been held there in his honor.