How good was Fedor really? Was he truly elite?

[MMAK]

Lewis only lost by getting caught by big hitters when he got lazy. He never gassed. Vitali's eye was a bigger danger to vitali than Lewis's gas tank was to Lewis.

Lewis was visibly tired and bullied around the ring by Vitali during the round before the fight was stopped.

 

[Arete9]

Yes, he was that good. You have to do more research than reading a Wikipedia entry and/or record.

 

[moreorless87]

The answer is yes. You don't know shit about Pride bro. Pride was literally started as a professional wrestling organization with the differentiation that the fighting would be more real than WWF, but the outcomes equally as scripted and fixed. That is why it was so f'n entertaining, because it was specifically crafted that way and we know it was controlled by Yakuza that informed fighters if they valued their life or that of their family they would honor the fight outcomes that were expected I would appreciate if someone could show me statements otherwise but I don't think Pride ever even claimed to be anything other than what it was.

There is also a very distinct pattern of dominant Pride fighters not having near the same level of success in other organizations after it was dissolved despite claims of having such a superior level of competition.

Pride started out as an outgrowth of Takada's pro wrestling career(which was going badly, UWFI had folded, New Japan jobbed him out and the Gracies beat several ex UWFI fighters) basically built on the idea that a match with Rickson would be real because Gracies wouldnt do works. The very early stages some of the other fights looked questionable but honestly I think the fact they looked questionable tells you that pro wrestling could never pass as MMA, look at Takada vs Kyle Sturgeon and it looks a lot like a UWFi shoot style pro wrestling match just pushed a bit more towards realism and much shorter, look at the worked RINGS matches like say the Volk Han/Tamura fights and its clear this isnt real fighting.

Past the very early Pride shows I don't think theres any question of there being pro wrestling matches on the cards, there is some question of fixed matches, Coleman/Takada tends to be viewed as such but honestly people could see that pretty easily as well and the fix was not kept under wraps at all, Gary Goodridge claimed Ogawa's corner tried to pay him to drop the fight(althougbn Gary clearly didnt, you can see he's trying to KO Ogawa) as well so really you can't stop people speaking out.

Really to me the issues with bias in Pride are not much different from the UFC, potential bias in terms of match making and reffing/judging. In Fedor's case though I would argue he was never really Pride's chosen son until very near the end of his career, Nog was more popular back when he won the title and Mirko was more popular afterwards, you look at the judging and reffing in Fedor's fights and nothing looks dodgy to me in Pride, every decision is a clear win for him and no questionable reffing calls, indeed the most questionable calls arguebly went against him when the ref stood up the Mirko fight quite often in rounds 2/3.

Plus of course the idea Fedor started loosing as soon as Pride ended or as soon as he came to the US is nonsense, he didnt loose until 3-4 years after those things, he beat 2 of the 3 biggest name UFC HW's and when he lost it was to another ex Pride HW.

 

[krelianx]

Can we stop with these exorbitantly moronic fucking questions? Yes, of course Fedor was elite.

He beat Mirko, Nog, Arlovski, Hunt, Herring, Schilt, Sylvia, Coleman, Randleman, Babalu...

No, he isn't the GOAT, since there are guys who had more impressive records. But to ask if he was elite is absolutely retarded. Nobody who beats Nog like he did, when the latter was in his prime, is not elite. Same with Mirko.

 

[Greyscale]

He was elite for like 4 years while his career spanned over 20

 

[Mind Mine]

He was elite for like 4 years while his career spanned over 20

I must have caught him at year 5

 

[Doctor Grudge]

How could he not be? He was the best HW for a long time.

 

[drphil]

How good was Fedor?

I have a hard time genuinely believing that Fedor is truly elite and up there with goats such as

GSP
Anderson
MM
Jones
DC

Fedors record was too padded he fought in such a different weak era and when Fedor came up against semi modern MMA fighters he got beaten badly and could not hang

Some say that he could not hang because of his age. I do not believe this one bit. The real issue was he came up against modern MMA fighters. Isn't is such a coincidence he only started to lose once he faced true elite HWs and all of a sudden he was "out of his prime."

Anderson wrecked Hendo, Fedor a HW got wrecked by Hendo.

Werdum stopped Fedor

And I believe prime Fedor would lose to

Poatan
Anderson
Cain
DC
Aspinal
Gane
Nganu
Black Beast
Jones
Overseen


Fedor has such a padded record and had huge holes in his game

Fedor had poor Boxing, poor fight IQ, poor bottom game. Jones would take him down and elbow him to oblivion.

Fedor was a good fighter but should not be compared to the true elite.

Fedor's myth is more folk lore and myth. His best wins are Cro cop and Nog. Cro cop and nog are good but have glaring holes in their game.

This sherdog bro.
As soon as he lost...he was never good.