I tire of constantly making this point in other threads, as it is deserving of its own thread.
I was just discussing this topic with my good friends JKS and "GOAT." I will post my latest response here, as it sums up Fedor's opposition.
Heath Herring was never a great fighter. He is most famous for taking some of the worst beatings in HW MMA history every time he stepped up in comp.
Nogueira again, was a one dimensional grappler. A great fighter but He was not well rounded, some of you are simply confusing him with his brother. Big Nog had no defense, got hit hard in every fight and used that to drag it to the ground, had hardly any offensive or defensive standup skills and was carried there by his granite chin. He was a flailing arm-puncher with no defense and once his chin went, so did his level in MMA.
Arlovski was the closest thing you could call a great well rounded opponent Fedor beat but he had clearly abandoned his sambo grappling long before he fought Fedor. He had a submission win 4 years before he fought Fedor and the 2 other subs he has in his career were at the very beginning. He was a full striker with a weak chin by that point, Nelson put him on his back and was about to Kimura him before the ref stood them up. Arlovski was not a well rounded fighter.
Some even mentioned Cro Cop who had no grappling other than TDD and holding on for dear life in guard.
Great well rounded fighters are guys who can fight well striking or grappling, no specific aspects needed. Just just two attributes, and they actually use it. I heard Kharitonov's name mentioned, he was one. So was Aleksander, Randy Couture and Frank Mir, Barnett(borderline) Shane Carwin, Velasquez, Ubereem, DC, Bigfoot, 2010's Werdum etc. These guys were in his era.
Could have fought them all but he didn't. The few he faced beat him. The main point is that Fedor as a well rounded fighter took advantage of opponents who were one-dimensional. Go ahead and look at his record. It's old school MMA fighters, either they were grapplers or strikers. The only ones who mixed it up, defeated him.
Cheers, good talk already. I can already sense that this is going to be handled with class and maturity. Have a good one.