Fedor Emlianenko had an extremely impressive reign as PRIDE's Heavyweight Champion and it's widely regarded as the most impressive Heavyweight Title reign in MMA history. During his reign as PRIDE Heavyweight Champion Fedor fought everyone from top contenders Cro Cop and Noguiera, to former UFC Champions Mark Coleman and Kevin Randleman, a very dangerous rookie at the time and former kickboxing champion by the name of Mark Hunt, another kicboxing phenom named Senny Schilt, and a host of Japanese fighters who weren't considered top contenders because of their sub-par technique but were still dangerous because of their sheer toughness and their ethos to fight to the bitter end. Of these men, Fujita put Fedor in the most trouble - more trouble than many of the top 10 contenders ever put Fedor in and during Fedor's title reign, Fujita may very well have come closer to knocking out Fedor with a single punch than anyone else ever did.
Of this roll call of all the great and even not so great fighters in PRIDE that Fedor fought while he was champion, one name and only one name is conspicuously absent from tis list - Josh Barnett. He was a former UFC Champion and his record of holding victories over all but one of the top contenders to Fedor's title in PRIDE over the years put him right next to the absolute top contender to Fedor's title - Mirko Cro Cop. There is some controversy over whether Barnett was the second ranked contender to Fedor's HW Championship Title or whether he was the third ranked contender. Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera was considered by many to be the second most highly ranked contender, but he fought Barnett twice and each man won one of those fights. The reason Noguiera is generally ranked ahead of Barnett is he has a win over Cro Cop whereas Bannett lost all of his 3 fights with Cro Cop. Still, Barnett had no competition for the spot of third top contender for The PRIDE Heavyweight Title.
Despite all this, Fedor fought Cro Cop once and fought Noguiera 3 times in PRIDE. Fedor even fought very lowly ranked o unranked fighters such as Nayoya Ogawa who Fedor easily submitted less than a minute into the first round of their 2004 fight, and the next year fedora fought Zuluzinho and made him quit in only 26 seconds. Fedor even accepted fights outside of PRIDE while champion. On December 31st, 2003 which was roughly 9 months after winning the PRIDE HW Title, Fedor took a fight in another Japanese promotion where he fought Yuji Nagata which fed won by TKO in 62 seconds. It's understandable why Fedor liked fighting those types of fighters. After all, when he faced Noguiera they went to the maximum time limit and Cro Cop also took Fedor right to the maximum time limit.
They say styles make fights. Neither Noguiera nor Cro Cop had a primary background in submission wrestling, known as "catch wrestling" to those in the know. Interestingly enough, Fedor's primary background was also in a form of submission wrestling indigenous to Russia and mazed "Sambo." Did Fedor believe catch wrestling would neutralize his Sambo and then some? Was he afraid of fighting a top 3 contender who had the best takedown skills of any of those 3 men? Or did Fedor simply believe the ages old axiom that a good big man will always beat a good little man and the 235 pound Emilanenko thought that Barnett with his greater weight and height and his mastery of catch wrestling's takedowns and submissions just had Fedor's number? To this day, no fighter ranked so highly as a contender for the championship has been so rigidly and consistently been kept away from a title shot the way that PRIDE helped protect Fedor's title reign by never giving Josh Barnett a title shot during Fedor's entire reign as The PRIDE Heavyweight Champion.
Of this roll call of all the great and even not so great fighters in PRIDE that Fedor fought while he was champion, one name and only one name is conspicuously absent from tis list - Josh Barnett. He was a former UFC Champion and his record of holding victories over all but one of the top contenders to Fedor's title in PRIDE over the years put him right next to the absolute top contender to Fedor's title - Mirko Cro Cop. There is some controversy over whether Barnett was the second ranked contender to Fedor's HW Championship Title or whether he was the third ranked contender. Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera was considered by many to be the second most highly ranked contender, but he fought Barnett twice and each man won one of those fights. The reason Noguiera is generally ranked ahead of Barnett is he has a win over Cro Cop whereas Bannett lost all of his 3 fights with Cro Cop. Still, Barnett had no competition for the spot of third top contender for The PRIDE Heavyweight Title.
Despite all this, Fedor fought Cro Cop once and fought Noguiera 3 times in PRIDE. Fedor even fought very lowly ranked o unranked fighters such as Nayoya Ogawa who Fedor easily submitted less than a minute into the first round of their 2004 fight, and the next year fedora fought Zuluzinho and made him quit in only 26 seconds. Fedor even accepted fights outside of PRIDE while champion. On December 31st, 2003 which was roughly 9 months after winning the PRIDE HW Title, Fedor took a fight in another Japanese promotion where he fought Yuji Nagata which fed won by TKO in 62 seconds. It's understandable why Fedor liked fighting those types of fighters. After all, when he faced Noguiera they went to the maximum time limit and Cro Cop also took Fedor right to the maximum time limit.
They say styles make fights. Neither Noguiera nor Cro Cop had a primary background in submission wrestling, known as "catch wrestling" to those in the know. Interestingly enough, Fedor's primary background was also in a form of submission wrestling indigenous to Russia and mazed "Sambo." Did Fedor believe catch wrestling would neutralize his Sambo and then some? Was he afraid of fighting a top 3 contender who had the best takedown skills of any of those 3 men? Or did Fedor simply believe the ages old axiom that a good big man will always beat a good little man and the 235 pound Emilanenko thought that Barnett with his greater weight and height and his mastery of catch wrestling's takedowns and submissions just had Fedor's number? To this day, no fighter ranked so highly as a contender for the championship has been so rigidly and consistently been kept away from a title shot the way that PRIDE helped protect Fedor's title reign by never giving Josh Barnett a title shot during Fedor's entire reign as The PRIDE Heavyweight Champion.
