The climate of the HW Division and where Fedor fills in

If your not one for actual reading comprehension stop here, in b4 did not read gif.

This topic is very subjective, there are many factors to consider when giving a proper response. What I'll say will revolve around some facts and opinions about Fedor, his possible opponents and the UFC HW division these days.

It seems there are varying reports about why Fedor retired, some say it was predicated on him focusing more on his exploits outside of fighting full time, or he was having issues balancing training and his appointed position, some suggest he was struggling through injury and had lost his desire to train, and lastly there was the Fedor is dedicating too much time to his religious beliefs. Personally I think it was a combination of all the above bar the religion thing.

Fedor has said himself that he is free from injury, has the desire to compete and will dedicate his time to training full time now. This would suggest that three of the above mentioned items may have been factors in some of his poor showing during his last six fights, but you can interpret this yourself.

The UFC HW division has seen a resurgence from some of the older names who in theory should be out of that physical prime window. Names like Werdum, Arlovski, and Hunt come to mind. I wonder if Fedor seeing these guys still being successful had any influence on his decision to return?

Some of the new breed HW's have looked very beatable. A few years ago guys like Cain Velasquez, Junior Dos Santos, and Alister Overeem where head and shoulders above the rest of the division. Things have changes as all three of these fighters look very beatable at the moment. Also note that Black Fedor moved down to 205 and has said that's where he is staying.

The gap in talent between the top 3-10 HW fighters is very small, as we see guys like Rothwell beating top 5 competition and guys like Hunt, BF, Browne, Overeem, Arlovski, Miocic, Barnett, and Mir doing a shuffle around in the rankings. The division seems very unpredictable.

Older fighters are relevant and bringing in the revenue, the division is weak and can use all the new talent it can get. There is money to be made and the conditions for Fedor to orchestrate a come back and be successful are in place. So the question is can he facilitate a monumental return. As a a Fedor fan I think he can come back and be moderately successful, but I think he would struggle with JDS, Cain, Werdum, and Miocic. Could he beat these guys, sure, will he beat these guys, doubtful.

Opinions and intelligent discussion desired.... Thank you for reading.

 

*sigh*

 

I would love to see Fedor in the UFC, I think he would do well against a lot of guys in the division. I don't think he would be champion, I don't see him beating Werdum or Velasquez. But I would love to see him fight guys like Hunt, Arlovski or even Nelson (can you imagine Fedor just pounding on Roy for 5 rounds, would be epic).
If he gets to the UFC (still a big if at the moment I think), he might even be given an easy road to the title if he proves to be a draw on his first PPV.

 

GOAT climate.

 

I think if Fedor had come in to the ufc,even with the three losses,he could have bounced back,and got some big wins in that time. With the time off,everything is up in the air about how good he'd be but there is some things to consider about the "climate " I dont think he will get the Werdum fight in his first fight in for a few reasons.

1) Honestly,even though he is the lord and master of mma,he shouldnt just walk into a title shot over the other guys who have all been fighting for the past 3 years. Whats fair is fair.

2) The fact that Fedor wants this fight first,kind of tells me he isnt planning on sticking around in mma that long,he wants to fast track his way to the title,maybe make a defense or two and bounce. No way UFC will give him a contract that allows him to do this. GSP gave the UFC his blood sweat and tears since time immemorial and just wanted a break,and they tuuuuuuuuuuuuuurned on him.

3) Maybe cooler heads will prevail and everyone agrees guy needs to get the ring rust off before gettin in there with the champ,who is undoubtedly a better fighter than he was when he and Fedor first fought.

 

If Fedor is in good fight shape, this is probably the best moment to attack the Top10

The Champ is Werdum that while is true that gave him his first true defeat, is imho very beatable by Fedor if he strictly apply a good gameplan

Strong contender is AA, and even just as match ups i will ever favor Fedor over him.

Cain and JDS was the biggest obstacle but they both seem already out of theyr prime

Bigfoot and Ubereem can't take the juice

All others are very beatable on general

 

Cain seems out of his prime. Righty oh then.

 

Based on 1 fight coming back from a long injury layoff. These people are kidding themselves.

 

Out of his prime =/= instant can

Fedor out of his prime destroyed Sylvia in few seconds of violence, murdered AA in mid-air and i think will have defeat Werdum if he had something that remotely resemble a gameplan

Both Cain and JDS seem have theyr best days behind them, simple as that

Cain got a long injury layoff, is'nt getting younger or healthier and now he have one more loss on his backpack

Is'nt that absurd believe that current Cain is'nt the best Cain we will ever see

So is for Fedor of course, even more

 

Fedor will be back. And there will be no questions anymore weither hes in or out of his prime

 

this is all just opinion about who was out of their "prime" the fact is no one really knows. he won and won and won and then he finally,regrettably,reluctantly lost. Its hard to say he wasnt as good as he allways was cos he started to fight recklessly and desperatley after dropping this fight to Werdum,which is completley uncharacteristic for him.

 

Win or lose we will still see a different Fedor

Fedor on his prime had speed/explosiveness/reaction as first and most scary qualities, the current Fedor probably realized that these things are the first you lose with age, and now seem to focus on strenght



Will be interesting to see, Fedor was ever been considered a very strong dude even before, and both his throwing-bombs striking style and his judo will/may benefit from that new russian gorilla version

But still imho will not be as dangerous as when speed was his main weapon, bet all on power/strenght usually work well when you're the biggest or one of them, wich he will never be at HW

Still very curious

 

I see Fedor beating Werdum if he hasn't slowed down drastically. However that is a big 'if'.

 

We would see the bigger LHW's who want a piece of Fedor going up in weight to fight him. Jones and DC come to mind as 205ers that would easily win.

 

TBH to lazy to search (i hope somebody can confirm) but there was a lot of peoples saying that Fedor decline was visible before the Werdum fight (even discussion here with peoples posting the links of threads about that etc)

The AA fight, the Rogers fight, that Sambo match he lost etc, that was the period
I remember even his coach (Voronov?) complain in an interview that Fedor was slowing down and losing explosiveness (normal with age) before he lost to Werdum

And probably was something already there before, just that Lindland, Hong Man Choi and Tim "Oh SHIT!" Sylvia was'nt the men to show that

And again, i believe that with an actual gameplan Fedor was probably likely to beat Werdum.
"Dominate the striking part of the match and stay the fuck out of the ground" kind of gameplan, was imho very doable even by 2010 Fedor.
If Werdum was'nt able to takedown him, keep him down and sub him, Werdum was likely fucked

But win =/= be in your prime

 

Im sure Fedor wanted to keep it standing,but i dont blame him for what he did,when you win 29 fights in a row,your confidence is not a normal persons confidence. It was bound to happen eventually

 

If current Fedor is good, but will be very fun match ups

 

I doubt he could climb the ladder to a title shot, I wouldn't mind seeing him fast laned to one though.

 

at 38 speed might not be his main weapon anymore anyway.

 

I agree with that, is exactly how i see it

Overconfident + little/no respect of BJJ sub game + World BJJ/ADCC Champ = bad combo