This recent sad news with Cain is just more evidence why Fedor will never be surpassed

[Apocalypse604]

To those who say he fought cans.....well ya...thats what happens when youve pretty much laid waste to any other top contender of that time. The funny thing is, he probably could have gone down and laid waste to the 205 pound division as well seeing as how he was a small HW.

I think many people are unaware that Prides HW division was leaps and bounds better then UFCs when Fedor was in his prime.

 

[groo]

do people forget that he was barely training at that time? He was brainwashed by his sorceror to leave everything in "God's hands" and turned into a pudgy brawler. It was evident even in his wins against Sylvia and Arlovski. The PRIDE Fedor would have beaten every HW who ever stepped into the octagon.

What happened to his wizard anyway?

 

[Apocalypse604]

Fedor was a great fighter but can we really call a guy that couldn't make it through Strikeforce the best? I just don't see it.

In retrospect, the Werdum triangle doesn't look so bad now, but getting literally pummeled by Bigfoot and getting ok'd by a guy whose best success came at 185, does not make the best ever.

Well...its safe to say his best years were behind him at that point. He should have just retired after the arlovski fight to be honest.

 

[bad seed]

What happened to his wizard anyway?

https://www.reddit.com/r/MMA/comments/2v46f5/fedors_hippy_looking_priest_arrested_for_dui_and/

 

[Klippy]

People making excuses for his losses.. smh. A loss is a loss. The guy fought some cans and beat only a handful of good fighters whom are no where near the top10 today. People are just really emotionally attached to this guy. What's his best win btw?

 

[MPD-Psycho]

The Last Emperor

The Eternal Emperor

 

[Pure Dust]

Lots of insecure losers in here trying to discredit Fedor.

 

[fatlipjesus]

PRIDE:
Nog 2/3
Cro Cop
Hunt
(After PRIDE folded he was given WAMMA belt)
WAMMA:
Sylvia
AA
Rogers

Even if you don't want to except WAMMA(even though it's really just the lineal PRIDE belt), he still defended the original PRIDE belt 3 times. More that any UFC HW champion.

He also entered and won the Pride HW Grand Prix while he was the champion.

None of those fights counted as a "title defense", including his second win over Noguiera which unified the interim and full titles.

People saying he only defended three times are basically trying to downplay the dominance he had. He defended his #1 position far more than three times.

 

[Pride4life]

Fedor is the GOAT, anyone saying otherwise.. let's do a poll.. loser leaves SHERDOG.. this has been done literally more than 100times since I've signed Sherdog (2001) now on my 2nd account.

 

[phd]

which one?

Dat WAMMA belt.

 

[Stevanchez]

Yeah because he's the best HW to ever live. No one can dispute that.

He is. But I'm confused as to what your sarcastic remark is about. You asked a question and answered it.

You're the one putting so much weight on title defenses. I'm just pointing out that if your "be all, end all" criteria for greatest HW is title defenses, than Fedor has more(no matter how you look at it) than any other HW.

I don't think title defenses are really that important. If you beat a good fighter, it shouldn't matter if an arbitrary clothing accessary hangs in the balance. IMO who you beat, when you beat them, and how dominant you're reign atop is more important. But even by that criteria, Fedor has as many wins over top 10 HWs as Cain has wins in general. He also has more top 15 wins than Cain has fights. Nearly all of them stoppages. His longest winning streak is nearly twice as long as Cain's career. He was the #1 HW and a top 5 P4P fighter for over 7yrs(rankings he defended everytime he fought). Cain got into the top 10 HWs for the first time 7yrs ago.

You can go back and revise history to degrade any athletes career to nothing. But numbers and wins don't lie. Just my opinion, though.

 

[Stevanchez]

He also entered and won the Pride HW Grand Prix while he was the champion.

None of those fights counted as a "title defense", including his second win over Noguiera which unified the interim and full titles.

People saying he only defended three times are basically trying to downplay the dominance he had. He defended his #1 position far more than three times.

Agreed.

 

[moreorless87]

To those who say he fought cans.....well ya...thats what happens when youve pretty much laid waste to any other top contender of that time. The funny thing is, he probably could have gone down and laid waste to the 205 pound division as well seeing as how he was a small HW.

I think many people are unaware that Prides HW division was leaps and bounds better then UFCs when Fedor was in his prime.

"Cans" is also used to refer to anyone but the very best in the division but the reality is if you step back and look at the sports history rather than swallowing UFC hype its clear that such fights DO represent a challenge still.

GSP lost to Serra, Anderson lost to Takase and Chonan, Fedor was in the most trouble of his career pre Werdum vs Fujita, etc

The issue is really that if you fight often against decent opponents then either a moment of magic, an error or a bad style matchups is going to catch up with you at some point and how you deal with it is a massive test, So no perhaps beating Fujita in itself isn't a giant win BUT winning the fight where lighting struck inside a round IS a giant achievement.

 

[Dirge]

Say what? Fedor spent the majority of his career fighting cans in an org that did zero drug testing. When he finally came to strikeforce he lost 3 in a row...

In his "comeback" he has fought cans and has beens, one of which nearly beat him.

I am not saying he used peds for the majority of his career because there was no testing to prove it. When he fought in strikeforce with testing he got wiped out.

Cain for all his injuries has faced most of the top heavyweights other than stipe and overeem.

Injury free cain would likely be considered the heavyweight goat.

Fedor's accomplishments simply have too many asterisks beside them.

 

[fatlipjesus]

You tell me, its a fact that he didn't want that fight and his managers ducked it.

Speaking of Arona

No it's not.

If you read the article you will see that Overeem never intended on fighting Fedor before he lost to Werdum.... and then clearly states that he doesn't want to fight Fedor after Werdum because he didn't want to fight someone coming off a loss.


"Overeem claimed his plan all along was to fight the winner of Emelianenko’s June fight with Fabricio Werdum. After Werdum unexpectedly caught Fedor in a triangle choke, the Strikeforce champ said he set his heart on a bout with the suddenly potent Brazilian submission ace. But with Werdum now out tending to an injured elbow, Overeem has made other plans. Kickboxing plans. Plans that can’t be changed, apparently."

 

[fatlipjesus]

Say what? Fedor spent the majority of his career fighting cans in an org that did zero drug testing. When he finally came to strikeforce he lost 3 in a row...

In his "comeback" he has fought cans and has beens, one of which nearly beat him.

I am not saying he used peds for the majority of his career because there was no testing to prove it. When he fought in strikeforce with testing he got wiped out.

Cain for all his injuries has faced most of the top heavyweights other than stipe and overeem.

Injury free cain would likely be considered the heavyweight goat.

Fedor's accomplishments simply have too many asterisks beside them.

Noguiera, Crocop, Sylvia, Arlovski, Hunt, Coleman, Randleman, Arona, Fujita, Herring and Sobral weren't cans.

What does PED testing have to do with it?

Do you honestly think that Fedor was the only one using PEDs in Pride?

 

[Dirge]

Noguiera, Crocop, Sylvia, Arlovski, Hunt, Coleman, Randleman, Arona, Fujita, Herring and Sobral weren't cans.

What does PED testing have to do with it?

Do you honestly think that Fedor was the only one using PEDs in Pride?

No... I expect they all were. And of the guys you listed, Big Nog and Crocrop at the time were elite although very one dimensional. Big Nog has barely average standup and still can't defend a takedown. He spent the majority of his time fighting Fedor on his back. Crocrop had a decent sprawl but again zero ground game and spent a good portion of the fight on his back. When Fedor fought the rest they were either B fighters (like Sobral and Herring), past their prime (Coleman was 40 when they fought) or simply not very good (Arlovski and Sylvia). Arona was a middleweight with 2 fights to his name when he fought Fedor. Hunt had zero TDD and zero ground game when he fought Fedor. If they fought today, I'd take Hunt every time.

 

[wrestlefan]

Cain was 34 in July
The UFC 200 Cain would've won the Grand Prix easily if he didn't got himself injured
That's a big if tho

Only at sea level.

 

[Dogo1]

When exactly would you consider Couture "on top"?

I dont think there was ever a point in time that he was the #1 ranked HW in the world.

When he was the UFC hw champ while being much older than Fedor and having lots of success you know...in America

 

[Dogo1]

Athletes age differently. Longevity does not equal greatness. Couture was a special fighter, but at the height f his skill he was not nearly the equal of Fedor. Taking out Tim Sylvia is not the same as taking out Cro Cop or Big Nog in their primes.

Right, Fedor did these things in a ped testing free environment.