Fedor's blank face during fights, to show no weakness?

SherdogJoe

SherdogJoe

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I was just thinking about Fedor's expressionless face before/after/during his fights and started wondering if there was a strategy behind it rather than it just being him not having a lot of emotions.

When you're in a fight and you show a fired up face, or an angry face, or any expression at all, you're putting your emotions on display. The problem comes when you get hurt though, and that expression changes...

During a fight when a fighter gets hurt and tries to hide the expression of pain, that expression looks similar to that of a blank nothing expression. That which Fedor seems to put on display for about 99% of the time.

So my theory of course is that Fedor is putting on a blank expressionless face because that's the same face he'll have when he's hurt. Therefore fighters won't detect the change from good to hurt as easily.

Just think of Diego Sanchez. He goes from super angry bad ass expression to then being hurt and going into scared/hurt face mode. Then his opponent knows he's hurt and they can move in.

Fedor = Genius
 
Fedor went through the same emotions as other fighters go through before and during fights. It just looks different. He looks concentrated, focussed and calm while others look nervous and show their emotions. But inside both Fedor and the others go through the same.
 
I think this is a cultural thing. Many Russians I know are very personal and keep what they are feeling inside them. That said, it could also be he is incredibly focused and only thinking of what he needs to do and reacting to his opponent's attempted offense. That said, it could just be his individual personality as MMA or life in general would be quite dull if everyone was the same especially if they were ALL like Fedor!
 
I miss Fedor already. The guy was electric. Never has there been another fighter that was more exciting to watch imo.
 
He's stated that he never feels any pain during combat. But he was showing emotions against Bigfoot, suggesting to me that he lost the zone
 
Yeah he has that cold face on while Droping hammer fits and tremendous arm punches on Heath Hearring and Big Nog.

I knew Nog will get brutalize when I saw the Herring fight
 
Free_MMAson said:
I think this is a cultural thing. Many Russians I know are very personal and keep what they are feeling inside them. That said, it could also be he is incredibly focused and only thinking of what he needs to do and reacting to his opponent's attempted offense. That said, it could just be his individual personality as MMA or life in general would be quite dull if everyone was the same especially if they were ALL like Fedor!
Click to expand...


I think as a group of people we are quite cold on the exterior, but not with our families.
Its during fights, or times when showing emotion might be a weakness that we kind of have it etched into ourselves to portray an unemotional persona.
 
supark said:
Fedor went through the same emotions as other fighters go through before and during fights. It just looks different. He looks concentrated, focussed and calm while others look nervous and show their emotions. But inside both Fedor and the others go through the same.
Click to expand...

I don't agree. Not everyone responds to similar situations with the same emotions. Our emotions don't control us entirely, we have an ability to control our emotions, and Fedor did an excellent job of that. Fighters are probably better than 99% of the public at focusing and avoiding dwelling on negative feelings (athletes in general are good at this), and Fedor is at the top of this elite group.

He gave a short, frustrated look about 5 seconds before KO'ing Arlovski, one of the few times I saw his countenance vary.
 
He was simply someone very professional. As he said it was just a job for him, he never felt anything personal when he was fighting and didnt buy into any type of hype either his or of opponents. Plus being head above your competition was an added bonus. Later in his career his calm demeanor was washed a little and he became more and more impatient and reckless, but it seems thats the natural flow of events.
 
SherdogJoe said:
I was just thinking about Fedor's expressionless face before/after/during his fights and started wondering if there was a strategy behind it rather than it just being him not having a lot of emotions.

When you're in a fight and you show a fired up face, or an angry face, or any expression at all, you're putting your emotions on display. The problem comes when you get hurt though, and that expression changes...

During a fight when a fighter gets hurt and tries to hide the expression of pain, that expression looks similar to that of a blank nothing expression. That which Fedor seems to put on display for about 99% of the time.

So my theory of course is that Fedor is putting on a blank expressionless face because that's the same face he'll have when he's hurt. Therefore fighters won't detect the change from good to hurt as easily.

Just think of Diego Sanchez. He goes from super angry bad ass expression to then being hurt and going into scared/hurt face mode. Then his opponent knows he's hurt and they can move in.

Fedor = Genius
Click to expand...

It's not either/or...it's both.

When you are focused, not dwelling on negative feelings, you will perform better. Every athlete focuses for this reason.

Also, when you are competing against another individual, seeing that other person lose confidence will increase your own. Checkers, basketball, running, fighting, it doesn't matter.
 
people see what they want to see.
 
There were plenty of moments backstage in Pride where you'd see him letting out some screams and slapping himself in the head to get ready.

The stone face was as someone said him "in the zone" and focused.
 
The Green Lantern said:
I miss Fedor already. The guy was electric. Never has there been another fighter that was more exciting to watch imo.
Click to expand...

Me too. I don't think there will ever be another Fedor. Pretty much the perfect storm of awesomeness that would be impossible to recreate due to the fact that anyone even a little bit similar would be instantly compared to him. Therefore leading to them being self aware.

I miss Fedor, thank you so much for such brutality whilst also being a generally calm and lovely guy. A fantastic ambassador of the sport.
 
Aleks had a similar look. The Cro Cop - Aleks staredown was great. The best was Aleks and Thompson. Thompson was in berzerker mode and Aleks was like it doesn't matter I'm going to be dispatching you any second.

I think Fedor's attitude was like Jim Brown not spiking a football when he scored a touchdown. I've done this before and I'll do it again. This is what I do.
 
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