Very excited about potential Fedor return, especially as todays press hinted even more strongly towards UFC negotiations. http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2015/8/5...otiations-in-process-fabricio-werdum-mma-news He is looking in good shape, and has clearly remained active in MMA training. My thoughts on how he matches up with the HW division Champion : Fabricio Werdum. Werdum has improved dramatically since they last fought, but I don't think Fedor is the kind of guy to make the same mistake twice. This will be a stand up battle, I think Fedor could take some damage and win this. He wouldn't be the favorite though but I think it would be much more competitive than last time. 1 Cain Velasquez. Conditioning would play a huge factor in this fight, if Sea level Cain shows up this is a tough match up for Fedor and a fight I could watch 3 or 4 times, will depend on conditioning and camp prep. Potential FOTY 2 Junior Dos Santos. For some reason this is the one I cant see Fedor winning, JDS is just too much of a beast at boxing, I think he would outland Fedor and has more power. 3 Stipe Miocic. Pretty interesting match up, I think in a 3 round fight Stipe could fight smart and get a decision. I think Fedor finds a way to win in a 5 round fight if he is in shape. 4 Andrei Arlovski. This would be great to watch a rematch, could go either way. 5 Travis Browne. Travis is a tough match up for anybody at HW, would certainly give Fedor problems. 6 Josh Barnett I think this is a potential fight that hasn't got any attention. Stylistically they match up well, but I think Fedor can hold his own with Barnetts grappling and is a better striker. 7 Ben Rothwell. I honestly don't know what I would do if Fedor lost to Ben Rothwell, but you cant deny the guy is dangerous. I think this fight makes sense as his first UFC fight, would hope he would dispatch him early but you cant rule anything out at HW in MMA. 8 Mark Hunt. Another great rematch, Fedor has done it before and can do it again. 9 Alistair Overeem. Overeem is a bit of a dark horse (no pun intended) in the HW top 10. I think he can honestly beat anybody on his best day, but we never know what version of Reem will show up. Would be an interesting one, I would bet on a Fedor KO. 10 Frank Mir. Winnable fight for Fedor but Frank is a legend of the sport in his own right. 5 round fight I would favor Fedor. 11 Antonio Silva. TRT factor here, Silva has also looked very hittable recently too. I think if Fedor comes in ready he takes this rematch. 12 Roy Nelson. I think this match would gain some interest. I think Fedor would rightly be the favorite. 13 Matt Mitrione. I don't want to live in a world where meathead is a top 15 MMA HW, I would hope a prepared, even past his prime Fedor puts him away. 14 Stefan Struve. Stefan looked good against Big Nog, but Fedor is very good at knocking out tall people. 15 Alexey Oliynyk. Does Alexey have a match up coming up? I don't think they would put him up against a fellow 38 year old Russian. This summary might be optimistic, but heavyweights don't see to age quite as much as the other divisions and taking some time out to recover old injuries may have done him some good. Frank and Arlovski still hanging with the top 10! The only fight I cant picture him winning is against JDS, the others are all winnable with the right game plan from an in shape 38 year old Fedor. I mean all the other guys in the division are his age pretty much its not like his coming back fighting some young super athletes that have evolved MMA to the next level. Stipe/Cain/JDS are early 30s, the rest are late 30s.
Werdum - Werdum wins Cain - Cain wins Junior - Junior wins Stipe - Fedor wins Arlovski - toss up Travis - Fedor wins Josh - Fedor wins Rothwell - Fedor wins Hunt - Fedor wins Overeem - toss up 10-15 - Fedor wins
No. I find it amusing. Dumb people like you make me laugh. I wish Fedor fights in the UFC so we can see him getting destroyed a few more times. Then he will go back to Japan and he will look awesome again.
Fuck all that noise, I'm excited to see a legend return and finally fight in the UFC where the best heavyweights compete. I'm not saying he's gonna be champion, but who knows. The suspense is killing me and I love it. I'll be very disappointed if he signs with anyone else.
A big concern is his skin. You tap him with a pillow and he's cut and bleeding. Cain and JDS give him problem, but I think he could make his way into the Top 5.
I bet you thought Arlovski had no chance in the UFC when he came back after that terrible performance he had against Schaub.
I've been plenty critical of Fedor over the years, but I'd love to see him fight in the UFC. Not sure what we're going to see. The Fedor that was steam rolling people in 2005 is a hard man to bet against. The Strike Force era Fedor would be tough to favor him outright vs most of the top 10. We'll see...
they're going to have to protect the hell out of him to be able to manufacture a run. but ironically, the only guy in the top five who i think he has a real legit chance of beating is werdum. styles make fights, and assuming he wouldn't be stupid enough to leap into werdum's guard again, he stands a chance of being able to handle him in the standup. if I had to guess, I'd say they are probably going to give him one warm up fight against someone lower down the ladder that he can handle (like fringe top ten), build him up with the general public via promos about his history in pride to justify a quick title shot, and then give it to him in the 2nd fight - similar to what they tried to do with crocop.
