Found two articles about why Fedor was declining in 2009/2008

[Rajon Rondo]

I seen a bunch of sherdoggers claim Fedor's decline started around 2008 when he had his first sambo loss and looked beatable against Arlovski in 2009. Others said the game caught up to him. Whatever the reason is, I found two articles explaining why the decline in his performances was caused by TV and movie appearances

Heres one article covering his first sambo loss in 2008.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mm...oses-at-2008-world-combat-sambo-championships

And this is what is says: "Fedor was still in Thailand as recently as two weeks ago and has also been making the rounds as Affliction's media darling, promoting the upcoming reality series "Fighting Fedor"

The next piece makes the same type of claim after the Arlovski win, Fedor's own head coach pretty much said he got distracted by doing movies and TV shows and he has to stop starring in them he wants to keep winning.

https://www.si.com/mma/2009/06/09/fedor-training

His head coach saying this:
"If he wants to keep winning, he can't be spending too much time on these commercials and these movies," he said. "Afterwards, after the win. For a fighter, the most important thing is work, work, work. Fedor wants to keep winning, and keep winning well. He needs to train professionally."

My take on this is Fedor got drunk off the Hollywood celebrity treatment he got in America after pride being folded in Japan. He forgot what it meant to be a winning fighter.

What do you guys think?

 

[MoneyMcGrabber]

Fedor was undefeated for 10 years, then started losing.
Obviously his body was not the same after 10 years of demanding training and fighting at the level he did it.

 

[TR1]

Fedor was undefeated for 10 years, then started losing.
Obviously his body was not the same after 10 years of demanding training and fighting at the level he did it.

That sort of success comes with extreme training.

I read an interview with Roman Zentsov, who trained with Fedor during his PRIDE success, and he said his body literally could not take the intensity of training with Fedor constantly.

 

[Pierced7681]

Same thing happened to Ronda. She started doing too much media and then lost.

 

[HHJ]

Fedor was undefeated for 10 years, then started losing.
Obviously his body was not the same after 10 years of demanding training and fighting at the level he did it.

Also the loss of momentum. You spend the majority of your career undefeated and finally lose,you dont just truck along like it never happened.

 

[HHJ]

That sort of success comes with extreme training.

I read an interview with Roman Zentsov, who trained with Fedor during his PRIDE success, and he said his body literally could not take the intensity of training with Fedor constantly.

Mirko once said just before the hw tourney in 2004: There's only 3 guys in this div thats training 5 hours a day,training harder and smarter than anyone else,and thats himself,Fedor and Nogueira

 

[faustian]

Unless those articles include the fact that he was constantly breaking his hands in training, I wouldn’t read too much into them

The objective truth regarding Fedor’s eventual fall was that his hands were so diminished that he had to completely reinvent his game into headhunting for early finishes because he knew his hands wouldn’t last. His original style of furious and heavy GNP — where he’d be punching anything within orbit, even if it meant punching straight bone and even canvass — was simply not sustainable over the long haul

 

[HHJ]

Unless those articles include the fact that he was constantly breaking his hands in training, I wouldn’t read too much into them

The objective truth regarding Fedor’s eventual fall was that his hands were so diminished that he had to completely reinvent his game into headhunting for early finishes because he knew his hands wouldn’t last. His original style of furious and heavy GNP — where he’d be punching anything within orbit, even if it meant punching straight bone and even canvass — was simply not sustainable

i dont know if id agree with that. He def stopped GNP like he did against nogueira,because thats literally harder than people were meant to throw punches on the ground lol his hands couldnt sustain that kind of abuse. He usually would resort to hammer fisting guys or throwin loopin shots but not with the same mustard,cos he didnt wanna break his hands,but that wasnt his only problem....

I believe that his offensive grappling took a hit too. with age and injuries. He knew it,and for that reason had to stand up more. More taking to the ground when an oppurtunity present itself rather than go in activley forcing it...like catching a kick,etc. Once certain skills started to erode,it hurt the whole package,cos Fedor was at his best when he used all his skills in tandem.

 

[Titan1980]

This is an old trope. Fighter gets famous and falls in love with the famous lifestyle and loses.
There are a lot of fighters that this has happened to. Interesting hearing it happened to Fedor as I have never seen him in anything outside of fighting.

 

[faustian]

Fedor Emelianenko Breaks Hand, Nose In Strikeforce Victory
By Brent Brookhouse Nov 8, 2009, 11:46am EST

The nose break isn't an issue worth much concern but the hand breaks remain a major problem for Fedor. In combat sports hand breaks tend to repeat often due to repeated stress to the same bones that have already broken once and have weakened. Fedor's style of punching which involves a lot of landing with the thumb and index finger rather than the knuckles of the index/middle finger leads to a lot more injuries.

https://www.sbnation.com/2009/11/8/2311996/fedor-emelianenko-breaks-hand-nose-in-strikeforce-victory

Fedor's perpetually broken hands even used to be a topic of discussion on MMA forums:
http://forum.mmajunkie.com/forum/threads/i-figured-out-why-fedor-always-breaks-his-hand.4185/

 

[GearSolidMetal]

What do you guys think?

I love Fedor, but the last time we saw 'Prime Fedor' was against Tim Sylvia.

Against Arlovski and Brett Rogers (amazing to realize that fight was 11 years ago) he looked very beatable, and won by lucky overhand-rights that landed perfectly.

It wasn't just the TV and movie appearances, Fedor had trained in Sambo since an early age and combat sports take a toll on the body unlike any other. Its surprising he lasted as long as he did.

But dammit I still wished we got that Werdum rematch. I think he still had it to win that fight, he was cocky and got caught. If he had fought smarter he would have won, easily.

 

[GueseGuy]

Fedor is the GOAT. 10 years of dominance is enough for me.

 

[kekiss]

A lot factors came in play, his longevity, fighting in cage, and fight game growing, even though a lot guys claim it’s not true. Guy as much undersized as him, completely kicking asses of juiced/bigger guys, great all around , dominant as it gets, nothing bad to say about such great fighter, him loosing was just a matter of time, only loss that surprised me was Hendo’s lol, others were understandable

 

[faustian]

i dont know if id agree with that. He def stopped GNP like he did against nogueira,because thats literally harder than people were meant to throw punches on the ground lol his hands couldnt sustain that kind of abuse. He usually would resort to hammer fisting guys or throwin loopin shots but not with the same mustard,cos he didnt wanna break his hands,but that wasnt his only problem....

I believe that his offensive grappling took a hit too. with age and injuries. He knew it,and for that reason had to stand up more. More taking to the ground when an oppurtunity present itself rather than go in activley forcing it...like catching a kick,etc. Once certain skills started to erode,it hurt the whole package,cos Fedor was at his best when he used all his skills in tandem.

I think his abandonment of the ground game derived from his hand problems. Fedor at his best was never hunting for subs after a takedown; he was always looking to punish with top control and the most brutal GNP imaginable. Note his fight vs Hunt when his hands were already diminished and on top of that he had a broken bone in his foot; he knew his best bet was to take Hunt down and sub him, yet it was awkward because that was never Fedor's style. He eventually got the sub but only after being visibly (imo) frustrated and going toe-to-toe like a madman with Hunt on the feet

 

[kekiss]

I love Fedor, but the last time we saw 'Prime Fedor' was against Tim Sylvia.

Against Arlovski and Brett Rogers (amazing to realize that fight was 11 years ago) he looked very beatable, and won by lucky overhand-rights that landed perfectly.

It wasn't just the TV and movie appearances, Fedor had trained in Sambo since an early age and combat sports take a toll on the body unlike any other. Its surprising he lasted as long as he did.

But dammit I still wished we got that Werdum rematch. I think he still had it to win that fight, he was cocky and got caught. If he had fought smarter he would have won, easily.

I love Fedor, but to say that Werdum loss was a fluke and him getting cocky is dumb narrative, he just got caught but sneaky BJJ specialist, who turned out to be pretty damn good UFC champ

 

[HHJ]

I think his abandonment of the ground game derived from his hand problems. Fedor at his best was never hunting for subs after a takedown; he was always looking to punish with top control and the most brutal GNP imaginable. Note his fight vs Hunt when his hands were already diminished and on top of that he had a broken bone in his foot; he knew his best bet was to take Hunt down and sub him, yet it was awkward because that was never Fedor's style. He eventually got the sub but only after being visibly (imo) frustrated and going toe-to-toe like a madman with Hunt on the feet

One way or another,he def stopped being as slick as he was on the ground. He said thats why he didnt go for any subs with Mirko,cos he risked losing the position if he couldnt finish the hold. He says in that fight he badly broke his hands or at least one of them

 

[HHJ]

I love Fedor, but to say that Werdum loss was a fluke and him getting cocky is dumb narrative, he just got caught but sneaky BJJ specialist, who turned out to be pretty damn good UFC champ

Yes but him diving into Werdum's guard,of course he would do that. After living in Nog's guard for three fights,he figured he didnt have anything to worry about...and it if werent for the cage,he might have escaped it.

 

[kekiss]

Yes but him diving into Werdum's guard,of course he would do that. After living in Nog's guard for three fights,he figured he didnt have anything to worry about...and it if werent for the cage,he might have escaped it.

Agree about cage, that fucked up a lot Pride guys fighting style

 

[GearSolidMetal]

I love Fedor, but to say that Werdum loss was a fluke and him getting cocky is dumb narrative, he just got caught but sneaky BJJ specialist, who turned out to be pretty damn good UFC champ

Werdum practically admitted it was a fluke by claiming he would immediately give Fedor a rematch, and then ran off to have a surgery.

Oh, he suddenly realized he needed surgery days after the fight, in which he was relatively unscathed? Even if he was injured in the training camp he still fought Fedor, and could have fought him again, supposedly.

In other words, I don't buy it. Either way, it was a bitch move.

 

[iDisagree]

Fedor was the World HW Champion in 2003.

He was on top of the world in 2005 when he defended the belt against Cro Cop in the biggest fight of his life in front of 60k fans in Japan. That was his prime.

By 2009 he was already 4 years past his prime and pulling wins out of his ass with sneaky veteran tricks. Its no coincidence he finally lost in 2010 and lost 3 in a row.