Great offense, poor defense

[NoBiasJustMMA]

yep, that right hand lead to a clinch throw he did repeatedly to Nog was a thing of beauty. Blocked Cro Cop's body & head kicks, checked some of his low kicks.

To be fair, Fedor was, at times, wild & sloppy. I think Barnett said it best, that that could be a weakness, but at the same time that aggression was working. Like in the Goodridge fight he was sloppy, then in the Nog fight he was more calculative. And before going into brawl mode in SF, he was improving in his stand-up when in Affliction.

Khabib throws wild strikes, imo. Like, crazy wild hooks from the outside with all his might. I think the difference between them can be seen with how they hit mits. Fedor hits those in a rhythm, he's not static & stiff at all.

I agree with you on this post but I also think that Khabib is a bit wild on purpose, he's unpredictable and is constantly working his clinch and takedowns as well as his strikes. Very few people do the stuff he does in the stand up, for example the leaping lead uppercut with a funny angle he KOed Tavares with. Both Khabib and Fedor also have great speed and reaction time as well as being aggressive and very well rounded.

Rhythm can be good if your opponent cant find it but broken rhythm is good too because it makes it harder for your opponent to figure out your timing if it's constantly changing.

I think of all the top 10 fighters in the UFC Lawler has the best broken rhythm, he's constantly throwing at different speeds catching guys with slower punches or faster since the last ones had different speed on them.

 

[ShreddinMMA]

There needs to be something on shedding that for forbids Fedor from being mentioned in threads, his hardcore fans attack everybody even if fedor isn't being bashed. Some people pointed on some of his flaws in this thread and they are being unfairly attacked for it. As for poor striking defense Cro Cop, he had poor footwork an little head movement while slowly stalking his opponents. He payed for this dearly against Randleman, Gonzaga, Schaub and many K-1 fights.

It's not bashing when you are correcting something that is completely wrong. Kind of like you saying Cro Cop had bad footwork. Cro Cop had incredible footwork, that was one of the things he was most famous for. And his lack of head movement comes from his kickboxing background, where constant head movement is a good way to eat a head kick.

Come on. Where are you getting this info? It sure seems like most of it is just a poorly formulated opinion.

 

[Lionkill]

Fedor had very good defense.

 

[BulldogWrestler]

Frankie Edgar

 

[Steve08]

As for poor striking defense Cro Cop, he had poor footwork an little head movement while slowly stalking his opponents. He payed for this dearly against Randleman, Gonzaga, Schaub and many K-1 fights.

Excuse me? Have you even WATCHED any of those fights? Cro Cop was known for his excellent footwork and speed in K-1!!! Cro Cop's footwork was MUCH BETTER than that of JDS, Cain or anyone in the HW division right now.

Cro Cop was almost purely an offensive striker, yes, but to claim that he had "bad defense" is patently absurd. If you can watch his fights with Fedor, Bob Sapp, Wanderlei Silva II and still think that, then you just don't understand what you're watching.

 

[Claude]

While many MMA fans and insiders would consider Lyoto Machida the most elusive fighter in Mixed Martial Arts, FightMetric uses statistical analysis to prove that he’s actually the second most elusive(of the list they’ve assembled) mixed martial arts fighter. The stats below comes from the number of strikes a fighter takes divided by the number of minutes fought to give you the number of strikes absorbed per minute of fighting(SApM). Here’s the list:

Frank Mir: 2.7 SApM
Rashad Evans: 1.39 SApM
BJ Penn: 1.23 SApM
Georges St. Pierre: 1.01 SApM
Anderson Silva: 0.71 SApM
Lyoto Machida: 0.64 SApM
Fedor Emelianenko: 0.59 SApM

As you can see Fedor Emelianenko has the lowest SApM with Machida coming in second. Take from this what you will, but these two fighters are very hard to hit.

:icon_idea

TS is a newbie. Go easy on him.

 

[ShreddinMMA]

Well Rogers had him in trouble with GnP at one point I think...? But let's be serious, Fedor neglected his grappling for years and NEVER would have wound up underneath Brett or Silva in his prime.

But yes, Fedor's defense was extremely underrated. Not spectacular, but very effective. Just good head movement and footwork. It's pretty much the reason why people actually thought Arlovski had successful offense against Fedor, when slow-mo replays will reveal that Arlovski barely got anything off before trying that ill-advised flying knee.

The fact that Fedor went toe-to-toe with Mirko and only left with a broken nose for his troubles says a lot: that he was one of the better mma strikers in the short history of this Sport.

Rogers landed 2 or 3 punches, Fedor went for an armbar (which he would have had except he was close to the cage), where he proceeded to get out from under Rogers anyways by his own will. It all happened in a matter of second. It should also be noted the only reason Fedor was under Rogers was because of a botched submission attempt.

But yes. Everything else you said about his striking defence it true. And he did appear to neglect his ground game in his later fights.

 

[Private Whatley]

Fedor, Cain & Overeem are upper tier in MMA striking defense. Reem gasses and has a glass chin, he's doing fine defending otherwise. Cain's improved his defense, it wasn't good early in his career. Fedor did a bunch of stuff well for defense.

There are few who have good defense, while every good striker has good offense.

Hunt is good there, as well. As is DC. As were Rampage & Penn. Anderson was amazing (could still be). GSP was the best blocker.

The worst defense with the best offense goes to big hitters with basically no defense like Carwin & Brett Rogers.

I would say Anderson and Rampage are the best I've seen at rolling with punches.

 

[Steve08]

:icon_idea

No bro, didn't you hear, Fedor was just an untechnical brawler who swung for the fences on the feet, he was terrified of Cro Cop's "stand up" and he didn't wanna get exposed by the good HW strikers in UFC brah.

 

[Private Whatley]

Alex Gustafsson,but he has a great chin to compensate for his lack of defense acumen.

disagree. He has great footwork and lateral movement and rolls with punches quite well.

 

[Diet Otsuka]

Poirier

 

[ShreddinMMA]

I would say Anderson and Rampage are the best I've seen at rolling with punches.

Yup. Hell, that's why Rampage is still an extremely tough fighter to hurt/ finish. Great chin and he can roll with shots as well as anyone.

 

[Steve08]

disagree. He has great footwork and lateral movement and rolls with punches quite well.

Yeah, he doesn't move his head too well when he's attacking but his footwork is fucking outstanding, some of the best in the UFC. The thing he does that I like most is circle while he jabs-- Jones missed a lot of side kicks/push kicks to Gus's legs as Gus jabbed, because he was moving as he did it, which was really awesome to watch for me.

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

I would say Anderson and Rampage are the best I've seen at rolling with punches.

Rampage blocked them more than rolled with them, he was the best in MMA at blocking punches at one point in time. Not sure what that type of guard it is called but when I did Muay Thai for a while that is exactly how they taught us to block, grab the back of your head with one arm so that you are guarding with your arms and not relying on huge gloves that you won't have.

 

[Vil7]

It's difficult to think of a more fitting example than Arlovski. He threw a lot of crisp punch combinations so it was mind boggling when he would do things like backpedal with his chin up in the air when people would advance on him.

 

[Steve08]

Not sure what that type of guard it is called but when I did Muay Thai for a while that is exactly how they taught us to block, grab the back of your head with one arm so that you are guarding with your arms and not relying on huge gloves that you won't have.

Rampage tends to block punches on his forearms a lot, but I like to call that kind of guard you describe a "triangle guard".

It usually allows you to cover both your chin and temple well, and if the opponent punches at your guard then he's gonna injure his hand for sure. The catch-22 lies in how exposed your body is, but this can be mitigated with effective footwork.

 

[wrestlefan]

Anderson Silva.

The guy dominated during an era when fighters were one dimensional and the training was very basic. Literally the first legit opponent he faced in the UFC beat him.

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

Rampage tends to block punches on his forearms a lot, but I like to call that kind of guard you describe a "triangle guard".

It usually allows you to cover both your chin and temple well, and if the opponent punches at your guard then he's gonna injure his hand for sure. The catch-22 lies in how exposed your body is, but this can be mitigated with effective footwork.

Yeah, it does leave the body open and it also makes it a little harder to defend takedowns as it takes a split second longer to react and longer to get the hands down.

 

[Ryan Phillipe]

It's not bashing when you are correcting something that is completely wrong. Kind of like you saying Cro Cop had bad footwork. Cro Cop had incredible footwork, that was one of the things he was most famous for. And his lack of head movement comes from his kickboxing background, where constant head movement is a good way to eat a head kick.

Come on. Where are you getting this info? It sure seems like most of it is just a poorly formulated opinion.

Idc what CC was known for I watch fights and can tell he is a poor defensive fighter. A lot of fighters get reps and become known for things that aren't true such as, Mark Hunts insane knockout power, Jon Jones only wins because of reach, Fedor beat guys way bigger than himself (all of his good wins are against regular sized heavyweights, excluding Sylvia but that is debatable if that is actually a good win).

 

[Vil7]

Anderson Silva.

The guy dominated during an era when fighters were one dimensional and the training was very basic. Literally the first legit opponent he faced in the UFC beat him.

Hahaha good post.