can you link the interview?
i can't imagine Fedor saying that.
Why can't you imagine Fedor saying that? I'd really like to know the reason.
I can't find the interview, but heres a 2007 thread on BB.com in which one of the posters there took the interview off of our very own Sherdog.
Q. What do you think are the best MA styles to learn in order to compete in MMA?
A. Wrestling (includes subs in Russian, bor'ba) and boxing.
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=2468321&page=1
Bruce Lee also once said that to beat a black belt, all one would have to do is take a year of boxing and wrestling. Why is it so hard to imagine?
Yes, these are just opinions, but they are based off logic. Not to mention logic from the minds of two very notable practitioners of fighting (one being arguably the baddest man on the planet). Is it really all that hard to understand how or why they would make these statements? Do they seem like the kind of characters who would spout off vapid, baseless statements out of their asses? No, It came from experience, and experience is the best teacher. These guys knew their craft. True students of the game, they studied it and lived it. They knew exactly what was going through their heads when when they made those statements.
Boxing and Wrestling are the oldest forms of combat sport. Centuries before there were any rules, gloves, rings or cages, people were wrestling and bludgeoning each other bloody and senseless in loincloths. That means these two skills are the BASIS and FOUNDATION of what one human will use to disable another human when in an altercation, be it on the street, or in a cage fight. So is it really all that surprising that being proficient in both will also in turn, make you an extremely proficient fighter? And that lacking in either one of the disciplines will make you a very limited fighter?
Look at MMA, and how far just a pure wrestler can get and how well he can do based on wrestling ability alone. Add the ability to box and you've got not a perfect and unbeatable fighter, but a very dangerous fighter that has most of his bases covered and is well equipped to handle whatever an opponent is going throw his way and likely come out on top.
And isn't that what MMA is about?