What is Fedor's Legacy? (fight, hands, UFC, Muay Thai)
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Fedor's legacy? Second only to Igor Vovchanchyn for length of winning streak (Igor won 30 in a row). Unlike Igor, Fedor came onto the scene after the sport was truly evolved. No longer was it a contest of "which martial art is best?" but "who can combine all martial arts/many martial arts most effectively?" Fedor faced the best and beat the best, at least until Pride FC died. Fedor combines elite grappling with some of the heaviest hands that we've ever seen. He submitted guys that almost never get submitted and he knocked out people that virtually never get knocked out. All this while being one of the least intimidating looking fighters ever. I always liked to joke that Fedor is a real life version of Homer Simpson that can kick your ass. Six foot even and flabby, who would suspect that the greatest fighter ever (so far) is hidden in that frame?
Time for The Last Emperor to hang up the gloves now. Just like Ken Shamrock, his days of dominating the sport are over with. Too bad he didn't go to the UFC in 2007 when he still had something left, it would have been amazing to see what he could do and had he dominated a few years in the UFC Heavyweight division, his legacy would have been secured for all time. But we'll always hear some say, "Well he didn't do it in the UFC!" "He was afraid of fighting in the UFC!" And that's perhaps the saddest part of all. There will always be MMA fans who will doubt him and it didn't have to be that way.
I do gotta call BS on some of what the guy in the video said:
1.) Liddell fought in the UFC five times before setting foot in the Pride ring with Guy Mezger. He would fight in the UFC five more times before entering the Pride 2003 Grand Prix tournament in which he beat Alistair Overeem and then lost to Rampage Jackson. Three total Pride FC fights. Chuck Liddell came from the UFC, and the person in the video is the ignorant, uneducated idiot -- at least in this case.
2.) Yes Wanderlei Silva DID do bad when he got the the UFC. He's never been the same fighter since consecutive KO losses to Cro Cop and Dan Henderson.
3.) How would UFC fighters from the same era have done? Well, Tito Ortiz beat Wanderlei Silva with relative ease and that was before Wanderlei went on to dominate Pride FC. Coleman, Randleman, Barnett -- all of them lost their title and then went to Pride FC ... and still did pretty good. Coleman won the first ever Grand Prix for instance. But they were not the UFC's best they were former UFC champions -- aka they lost their title. Better just to admit that we don't honestly know how well UFC fighters would have done in Pride FC.
4.) Fedor evolved? To some degree sure, but he almost never threw a kick in his career. What would it be like if he'd mastered Muay Thai? Fedor was amazing, but he could have been even better IMHO. He was so successful with what he had, I don't think he ever saw the need to train in any other disciplines.
5.) The big guys Fedor fought? You missed most of them. Kerry Schall, Semmy Schilt, Mark Hunt, Zuluzino (Wagner Martins), Tim Sylvia, Hong-Man Choi, Brett Rogers. These are the huge guys he fought and beat. You missed most of the really big ones.
6.) Mr Josh Barnett is the poster boy for steriod users and cheating for all of MMA. Not everyone can claim to have destroyed an entire MMA promotion by cheating, but Barnett can. No way in hell Dana White lets him back in the UFC.
Look you're right with your underlying point, but your basing it all on inaccurate "facts." Yes Fedor is the best ever. He doesn't need invented "facts" to prove that. What he did in his career is more than sufficient.
Quote:
His legacy is kicking people in the head and knocking them out. Unfortunately for him, his legacy is over.
Erm ... I don't recall Fedor kicking anyone in the head. Definitely never knocked anyone out that way. Fedor is the guy that is 31 wins 4 losses and 1 No Contest. Out of those 31 wins, his eight KO's were by punches and 16 of those wins are submissions (many of those set up by his sledgehammer fists.) Signature finish was armlocks. Arm bars and kimuras account for 9 of 16 submission victories. Chokes accounted for 6 submissions and one submission due to strikes.
It is close but I'd probably give greatest of all time to Anderson Silva, for the 9 title defenses (yeah I count Lutter not Silva's fault he was fat) in the UFC against all types of opponents from strikers to BJJ to wrestlers.
tainted legacy because he never fought in the UFC after it became the biggest mma brand out. his last 5 or so fights were awful, even with the ko against that tin can arlovksi he was off to a bad start. got his nose broken by rodgers, stupid mistake against werdum, raped by silva and sloppy again against hendo.
time to retire fat man.
I don't think it is necessarily fair to Fedor that he has declined late in his career, same thing has happened to many great fighters. Liddell closed out his career 1-5, I'm not holding that against his legacy as one of the greatest in MMA history.
I don't think it is necessarily fair to Fedor that he has declined late in his career, same thing has happened to many great fighters. Liddell closed out his career 1-5, I'm not holding that against his legacy as one of the greatest in MMA history.
i agree, time has a way of catching up. i also think fedor has not bothered to "evolve" and things have changed. his game, like chucks, and like titos, and wandy, and a whole list of others just never changed.
its funny, fedor is what 30-4-1? yet he is being put in the class of guys like randy "over rated IMO" couture who is 19-11. i have actually been hearing lately how some people are actually rating randy as greater then fedor historically. i say BULL! a lot of this is being made because fedor didnt go to the ufc, and randy stayed there. i say BULL to that too. the ufc was no better then pride, or pancrese, or shooto, or rings or hell KOTC for a long time. the difference, current ownership made it the place to be. randy happened to be there, fedor didnt. thats all.
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