Did Fedor duck/avoid any fighter in his career?

Did Fedor duck/avoid any fighter in his career?

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Takes_Two_To_Tango

Takes_Two_To_Tango

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The rumors that I've heard is he avoided Bob Sapp and Overeem. What's the truth in that? And anyone else?

I personally don't think he was afraid to fight Sapp or Overeem. First off with Sapp, it would have been a freak show fight to appease the Japanese crowd. And Fedor was willing to be involved in freak show fights ie. HMC, Zulu. So I doubt he ducked Sapp.

As for Overeem, they were in the same side in the Strikeforce HW tourney. If Fedor beat Bigfoot, he would have ended up fighting Overeem if Overeem continued on after beating Werdum. I believe it's just one of those things just never materialized for some strange reason.

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Does this man look like he fears anyone?
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Overeem on roids would have KOd Fedor at that stage in their careers. My criticism of Fedor isnt who he didnt fight but who he did. Lots of cans and stylistically favorable matchups like Nog. No disrespect to the guy but he literally fought a guy that was 0-1. If that was any modern champ no one would take them seriously, but Fedor is considered the GOAT.
 
theleerygoose said:
Overeem on roids would have KOd Fedor at that stage in their careers.
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As an Ubereem fan I agree with this statement, by 2010-2011 while Alister was at his peak, Fedor was falling fast. But as a Fedor fan I believe that 2004-2007 Fedor would’ve finished even the most Uber version or Alister, his hand speed, power and explosive TD’s would’ve been too much for Reem to deal with.
 
theleerygoose said:
Overeem on roids would have KOd Fedor at that stage in their careers. My criticism of Fedor isnt who he didnt fight but who he did. Lots of cans and stylistically favorable matchups like Nog. No disrespect to the guy but he literally fought a guy that was 0-1. If that was any modern champ no one would take them seriously, but Fedor is considered the GOAT.
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laughed @ "stylically favorable matchups like Nog." Contending against the undisputed #1 HW on planet Earth for a title is Fedor picking a matchup now.

The crazy thing about that fight is people, almost 19 years later are still going on about how elite BJJ guys (like Nog) can give high level Sambo guys (like Fedor) problems. Oliviera morphed into the number one pick of who'd give Khabib trouble, people saying Burns would submit Khamzat, etc.

JSN said:
Supposedly Barnett too
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lol

So Fedor signed to fight him and then snuck steroids into his drinks? Whoever snuck high level steroids into Jones drinks must have taken notes from Fedor who signed to fight Josh but then maliciously forced Josh to test positive and fold an organization. 4D chess ducking from Fedor.
 
He avoided every HW in the UFC by never signing with them. Instead, he fought in the minor leagues with Bellator and lost to many of them. I still consider him the best HW ever though. His career in PRIDE is legendary!
 
Its hard to say whether it was intentional ducking or not, but yeah there were notable fights that didnt happen for whatever reason. The Barnett one can be excused because it was booked for an Affliction event and fell through. Why the Reem fight never happened in Strikeforce i'm not sure. It did feel weird at the time for Fedor to sign with SF and then not fight their champ pretty much straight away, then again Reem was spending most of his time in Japan at that point. I think the brackets of the HW GP were set up so that Fedor/Reem would have happened if Fedor hadnt lost to Bigfoot, cant remember for sure though.
 
theleerygoose said:
Overeem on roids would have KOd Fedor at that stage in their careers. My criticism of Fedor isnt who he didnt fight but who he did. Lots of cans and stylistically favorable matchups like Nog. No disrespect to the guy but he literally fought a guy that was 0-1. If that was any modern champ no one would take them seriously, but Fedor is considered the GOAT.
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“Stylistically favorable matchups like Nog”?? Nog was the champ, dude. And the consensus best HW in the world when Fedor first fought him. Not sure how you could see that as an opponent worth criticizing.

And to the thread topic, no. I honestly don’t think Fedor gave much of a fuck who he fought, it was more about whether the terms made sense from his POV.
 
TeenageMutantLesnarTurtle said:
Its hard to say whether it was intentional ducking or not, but yeah there were notable fights that didnt happen for whatever reason. The Barnett one can be excused because it was booked for an Affliction event and fell through. Why the Reem fight never happened in Strikeforce i'm not sure. It did feel weird at the time for Fedor to sign with SF and then not fight their champ pretty much straight away, then again Reem was spending most of his time in Japan at that point. I think the brackets of the HW GP were set up so that Fedor/Reem would have happened if Fedor hadnt lost to Bigfoot, cant remember for sure though.
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That’s correct about the Strikeforce brackets. As it turned out, it wouldn’t have mattered if Fedor beat Bigfoot. Overeem claimed he couldn’t fight Bigfoot in the next round because of a broken toe, then was pulled from the tournament and went to the UFC. Neither Overeem or Fedor fought past the first round of that tournament. The fight just wasn’t meant to be, sadly.
 
Benoitthegr8 said:
As an Ubereem fan I agree with this statement, by 2010-2011 while Alister was at his peak, Fedor was falling fast. But as a Fedor fan I believe that 2004-2007 Fedor would’ve finished even the most Uber version or Alister, his hand speed, power and explosive TD’s would’ve been too much for Reem to deal with.
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What's the best Fedor finish? Arlovski? But he would finish a super roided Reem in his prime? Come on, man. Submitted him? Maybe, but I just don't see that happening. Prime Reem by whatever he wants.
 
I doubt he was actually afraid of anyone in particular, but at the same time, he did seem pretty selective with his opponents. The biggest knock on him is his level of competition and never fighting in the UFC. We missed a shitload of a potentially great match ups, but he did fight most of the top guys in the promotions he was in. The standout exceptions: Barnett, Overeem, and Sergei. Sergei is understandable.

Rumors are he avoided Overeem and Barnett intentionally. There were a few opportunities later on down the road, in Strikeforce and Affliction, but again, the general consensus was that Fedor didn't seem interested in those fights. Especially vs Barnett in PRIDE.
 
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Fioretti said:
I doubt he was actually afraid of anyone in particular, but at the same time, he did seem pretty selective with his opponents. The biggest knock on him is his level of competition and never fighting in the UFC. We missed a shitload of a potentially great match ups, but he did fight most of the top guys in the promotions he was in. The exceptions: Barnett, Overeem, and Sergei. Sergei is understandable.

Rumors are he avoided Overeem and Barnett intentionally. They were a few opportunities later on down the road, in Strikeforce and Affliction, but again, the general consensus was that Fedor didn't seem interested in those fights. Especially vs Barnett in PRIDE.
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He was also supposed to fight Josh until Barnett popped for steroids and essentially ruined the event lol
 
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