Did Fedor duck/avoid any fighter in his career?

[613]

No, not him and his team asking for co promotion was fucking ridiculous

 

[MitMcl]

Not in his prime, but later in his career I feel he did. There was a time where he could have fought in the UFC had he chose to. He chose not to.

 

[TheChance]

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.

That's not what he is talking about. He was referring to them never fighting in Pride. Rumor was he did not want any piece of Barnett then.

 

[Cindynice420]

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.

Does this man look like he fears anyone?

How dare you

 

[Fioretti]

I really don’t think anybody in the real GOAT conversation ducked anybody. Despite the hate that flows through this place.

Yeah yeah.. Fedor ducked the UFC. GSP ducked Whittaker. Silva ducked Jones. And Jones ducked HW, etc, etc.

Imo, it’s only ducking if you talk massive shit, or just refuse to fight the next guy in line, in your division, but pick somebody else instead. And that definitely has happened. I won’t name names.

GSP ducked Silva though. Understandable, of course, but true.

 

[OmegaRugal]

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.


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.

Same Big Nog got submitted by Mir and Werdum. Werdum also submitted Fedor.

So yea ... truly elite BJJ can give elite Sambo issues

 

[TheChance]

Don’t you talk about my tits that way mister, I am more than my assets!
But yeah, that’s my recollection. I could dig around the internet and see if I can find something as a source, but that shit was like 15-17 years ago so who knows. In addition to that, Fedor happened to be injured the only time Barnett fought in a Grand Prix (the PRIDE 2006 GP) so they didn’t cross paths there either.

Barnett injured his shoulder in the fight against Cro Cop, that's why Fedor fought Hunt instead.

 

[TheBulge]

Certainly ducked Overeem throughout various era's of his career.

Never wanted that Cro Cop rematch, pretty convinced of that.

Of course never wanted those UFC beatdowns he had coming for a long time.

If it had been up to Fedor, he would have been happy fighting Matt Lindlands, Hong Man Choi's, more's elderly MW's and car mechanics for the next decade after Pride.

 

[Cowboy Kurt Angle]

Supposedly Barnett too

I thought he pissed hot so they canned his match

 

[JSN]

I thought he pissed hot so they canned his match

Hmm I may have wires crossed

 

[snackgod]

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.

Does this man look like he fears anyone?

the overeem fight is really the only fight i can rememeber being talked about an overeem was like lets do it but nothing happened.

 

[snackgod]

Fedor only requested strict drug testing for Reem because it was obvious to anyone with eyes Reem was juicing hard

Pretty sure Reem failed his drug tests right after his fight with Brock

that why overeem didnt fight in the usa with strikeforce for 3 years while fighting overseas.

 

[Orni]

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!

How did he avoid the UFC when he clearly didn't sign because he felt they didn't respect him. At this point it's pretty well documented and obvious how had the UFC treats it's talent. You have plenty of ex UFC poster boys and even current fighters that voice their opinion consistently.

 

[mmamxfan]

He didn't want anything to do with the jacked white boy Minnesota.

 

[markg171]

laughed @ "stylically favorable matchups like Nog." Contending against the undisputed #1 HW on planet Earth for a title is Fedor picking a matchup now.

Yeah he totally cherry-picked the undefeated, undisputed top HW of the time

“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.

Congrats on the moving the goalposts and inventing strawmen. Being the champ has literally nothing to do with whether or not it was a favourable matchup or not. That's determined by each other's relative skills, not rankings. And Fedor was the better grappler and striker, as well as faster and stronger. Hell, he was even 3 months younger.

Thus yes, it was a favourable matchup. Hence why he beat him with ease 3x.

 

[BFoe]

Congrats on the moving the goalposts and inventing strawmen. Being the champ has literally nothing to do with whether or not it was a favourable matchup or not. That, you know, has to do with each other's relative skills. And Fedor was the better grappler and striker, as well as faster and stronger.

Thus yes, it was a favourable matchup. Hence why he beat him with ease 3x.

First of all, you used it as a criticism. As if someone should be criticized for mollywhopping the champ and consensus greatest HW in the world at the time.
Secondly, no one considered it a favorable matchup initially. Fedor was not favored to win that initial fight. To do so, plus do so the way he did on the ground, was shocking.
Thirdly, Fedor is GOAT tier so beat everyone with relative ease for a decade. He was the better striker, grappler, and faster (not always stronger) than just about anyone from any discipline.
It’s just a ridiculous opponent to criticize.

 

[markg171]

First of all, you used it as a criticism. As if someone should be criticized for mollywhopping the champ and consensus greatest HW in the world at the time.

Except it was specifically criticized by OP for it's stylistic matchup, not for its ranking matchup like you tried to pivot it to.

Secondly, no one considered it a favorable matchup initially. Fedor was not favored to win that initial fight. To do so, plus do so the way he did on the ground, was shocking.

Fedor was a Grandmaster of Sambo and International Master of Judo. The only people shocked by Fedor willing to go to the ground with Nog, let alone dominate him there, were the people deluding themselves into thinking Nog was the best grappler in the world. Especially after Fedor had just dominated Herring, who Nog went life and death with.

It was a favourable matchup. As Fedor repeatedly proved.

 

[markg171]

No, as a way of saying he could be dangerous regardless of his lack of skill. And give the #1 HW a good fight and put him in a terrifying situation.

And even after that loss (his only one at the time) people were scared as hell of him. I mean ffs look at him, tell me you wouldn't be scared shitless being in the ring with the guy. It was a while before it was established that he crumbled if punched, which made him a lot less scary.

Sapp only didn't win that fight precisely because Nog negotiated special rules ahead of time to prevent knees on the ground. Had they been allowed like usual Sapp would've beaten him on the ground, or any number of times he sprawled Nog. Hell the piledriver everybody always talks about only happened precisely because he couldn't knee Nog there like in a normal Pride fight.

As he otherwise had zero idea what he was doing though, he instead lost. Which was Nog's reasoning for the special rules.

 

[Blayt7hh]

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.

The Reem fight didn’t happen because Fedor lost before it could happen

Fedor didn’t duck anyone. I’ve never heard this allegation of him ducking Sapp before. I feel like these are being made up long after the fact.

 

[BFoe]

Except it was specifically criticized by OP for it's stylistic matchup, not for its ranking matchup like you tried to pivot it to.



Fedor was a Grandmaster of Sambo and International Master of Judo. The only people shocked by Fedor willing to go to the ground with Nog, let alone dominate him there, were the people deluding themselves into thinking Nog was the best grappler in the world. Especially after Fedor had just dominated Herring, who Nog went life and death with.

It was a favourable matchup. As Fedor repeatedly proved.

No one criticizes a challenger for fighting the champion because of a perceived stylistic advantage, that’s ridiculous—and Fedor wasn’t even perceived to have a stylistic advantage at the time. What the dude said was:

My criticism of Fedor isnt who he didnt fight but who he did. Lots of cans and stylistically favorable matchups like Nog.

He is literally criticizing and up-and-coming HW for fighting the HW champion and consensus #1 HW in the world at the time because the poster is retrojecting that it was a favorable stylistic matchup. That’s one of the silliest things I’ve read in awhile.