What did Fedor right to accomplish his mma-career?

[Yrat]

I am curious to know your opinion what made Fedor the best heavyweight during the Pride era and before he lost to Fabricio Werdum.


My first theory is that Fedors team have noticed that he had a good IQ during the fight but also he was much faster then most of his opponents. Especially Fedors fight against Gary Goodridge, Naoya Ogawa and Kazuyuki Fujita.

He made an image in that level that many fighters was to passive to wait for him to do something.

Also his workout was the pre-crosstraining since I barely believe any American mma fighters were using kettlebells or smashing a sledgehammer on truck wheels back in 2002 like Fedor did. Today that is 100%standard in mma training.

Can you describe more what made Fedor better then others and why no fighter was close to finish him during Pride?

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Insane speed and reflexes for a HW combined with great power, unreal strength and great grappling ability. Really just an insane mix of an incredible athlete with a great propensity for learning fighting techniques.

Unfortunately the reliance on his speed and reflexes is what meant he fell off earlier than some of his peers as he aged and those abilities waned.

 

[2004 account]

Fedor was the first true alpha, complete mma fighter apex predator (frank shamrock wasn't a predator), then came the rest.

 

[skylolow]

Fedor was the first true alpha, complete mma fighter apex predator (frank shamrock wasn't a predator), then came the rest.

A lot of truth in that.

Fedor from the start went into matches with the mindset of finishing the fight. All fighters say that, but their actions in the ring or cage say otherwise all to often. Many times throughout his career he'd throw caution to the wind and just go for broke and more times than not he came out on top. He never really feared any certain aspect of any fighters game or try to avoid any part of the mma game regardless of the opponent. He just goes in there and does his thing and doesn't really even worry about cardio, time, etc..

 

[manboy<3]

what makes Fedor different is that he has a different fight philosophy that back in the 2000s was cutting edge and is still somewhat far ahead of it's time.

most MMA fighters are just a robotic combination of sloppy kickboxing, basic wrestling and jujitsu. For example when a fighter like Anderson Silva, gets taken down he just assumes a stiff BJJ guard and doesnt try anything fancy.

Now Fedor, he concentrated not only on the seperate aspects of MMA, but also on the transitions. Fedor's entire style\phillosophy is to be dangerous in those moments where a transition happens. For example, Someone tries to take him down and Fedor often attempts a reversal throw. When Fedor has knocked an oppoentnt down, his ground and pound is not methodical but rather chaotic and explosive, he continously tries to spin his opponent around and attack from all sides. His standup is reckless and chaotic, He often jumps forward/explodes into a combination which is bad from a boxing standpoint but creates a chaotic moment where his opponent has to deal with both fedor's punches and the coming takedown/throw. Fedor was the kind of fighter that was excellent at creating Chaos and thriving in it - even if the chaos came from his opponent. For example when Fedor managed to get an armbar after being slammed on his head.

This of course made him super entertaining because his fights are chaotic. It's the same reason people like Sakuraba, Wanderlei Silva etc

Fedor's run in Belator is a perfect example of this. His double knockdown against Mitrione. His reversals of Frank Mir and Sonnen. His swarming all over Sonnen. There was nothing but chaos/action in those fights.

 

[HELLHAMMER842]

I never saw Fedor trying to intimidate an opponent before a fight. He instead would start down at the floor looking like he felt remorse for the damage he was about to inflict. That probably messes with the other guys head. It's just bizarre

 

[Glove]

I believe it was his incomparable speed, which was unique for a heavyweight. Most people like to say, that Fedor was a middleweight who was stuck at heavyweight. Yet his whole life his weight was basically somewhere around 220-230, his later years he went up to 240. At 220 pounds he was rather unique in that when he was on his back during a match, his hip movements and adjustments usually repositioned himself on top of his previously mounted opponent. One such example is when he faced Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira i their first match. Notice in the gif below, fedor has his arm pinned by Nougerias knee, using s slight nudge to the right, he uses his trapped arm as the catapult. Freeing himself from a very "untenable" position.

In his match against Kevin Randleman, he was power bombed o his head, with Randleman on top leaving Fedor in a very compromising position. Again notice the hips when he reverse this position to put himself on the top position.

Incredibly explosive quickness for a very "undersized" heavyweight, this was an advantage he had over most heavyweights. But as he got older he lost his ability to react quicker grappling wise, ad he changed his entire game plan to being a brawler, which he never was for most of his career.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

what makes Fedor different is that he has a different fight philosophy that back in the 2000s was cutting edge and is still somewhat far ahead of it's time.

most MMA fighters are just a robotic combination of sloppy kickboxing, basic wrestling and jujitsu. For example when a fighter like Anderson Silva, gets taken down he just assumes a stiff BJJ guard and doesnt try anything fancy.

Now Fedor, he concentrated not only on the seperate aspects of MMA, but also on the transitions. Fedor's entire style\phillosophy is to be dangerous in those moments where a transition happens. For example, Someone tries to take him down and Fedor often attempts a reversal throw. When Fedor has knocked an oppoentnt down, his ground and pound is not methodical but rather chaotic and explosive, he continously tries to spin his opponent around and attack from all sides. His standup is reckless and chaotic, He often jumps forward/explodes into a combination which is bad from a boxing standpoint but creates a chaotic moment where his opponent has to deal with both fedor's punches and the coming takedown/throw. Fedor was the kind of fighter that was excellent at creating Chaos and thriving in it - even if the chaos came from his opponent. For example when Fedor managed to get an armbar after being slammed on his head.

This of course made him super entertaining because his fights are chaotic. It's the same reason people like Sakuraba, Wanderlei Silva etc

Fedor's run in Belator is a perfect example of this. His double knockdown against Mitrione. His reversals of Frank Mir and Sonnen. His swarming all over Sonnen. There was nothing but chaos/action in those fights.

Perfect description. The only difference once he got to Bellator was that those speed and reflexes had waned a little bit which meant he couldn't navigate the chaos as effectively as he had done earlier in his career.

 

[Doctor Grudge]

Athleticism is probably the biggest thing. Not many heavyweights could match him in terms of speed and things like that, the few that were also quick weren't as skilled.

Nogueira, who was usually seen as the #2 of that era was much slower on top of being weaker than Fedor without a massive size advantage to make up for it.

Slyvia and Arvloski lacked the speed and durability to fight Fedor. (and they lacked the skill to make up for that, especially Tim)

Mark Hunt has a pretty good body for fighting, but had little experience.



Crocop, who is slower, but still a good athlete might be the closest thing of having a combo of athleticism and technique. Fedor had a better skill set though overall.

Randleman is a comparable athlete, but terrible grappling. Fedor submitted him like he was a white belt, which I guess Randleman kind of was. Even if the fight had stayed on its feet, it wouldn't have gone well for Kevin because his striking was very rudimentary.

I suppose it would make sense that the guys that gave him some of the most trouble was Arona, and perhaps Lindland depending on how you interpret the rope grab. They're not real heavyweights, so Fedor's speed is not overwhelming, and Fedor is not so heavy either so he gets diminishing returns for being the bigger guy

Someone like "Decision" Dan Henderson might have pulled an upset or give a tough fight if he continued to fight heavyweights back then, and probably a big reason why he was able to beat Fedor in a fire fight when Fedor was a bit past it (that and Fedor's fight IQ was not as good as he got older).

 

[Typrune Goatley]

- Russian National Judo Team
- 4x World Combat Sambo Champion
- Boxed since childhood
- Trained kickboxing in Holland

 

[tehMoose]

Fedor is a robot.

This is the prototype:

After first update:

And this is the final product:

 

[BFoe]

Fedor is rare—even to this day—for being a heavyweight who is truly dangerous from all positions. His disciplines of sambo. Judo, and boxing form an extremely well-rounded skillset. As many mentioned, he was extremely fast. Fedor had excellent head movement, a wide variety of trips, throws, sweeps, transitions, and submissions, plus excellent hands and KO power. He was very difficult to take down, and if taken down he was extremely difficult to hold down. He had an insane pace for a heavyweight as well, and constant forward pressure, regardless of his opponent’s size or skills.

 

[K4BOSH]

I never saw Fedor trying to intimidate an opponent before a fight. He instead would start down at the floor looking like he felt remorse for the damage he was about to inflict. That probably messes with the other guys head. It's just bizarre

I think its from a Fedor interview where he says during the faceoff, he looks at the ground until the very last second just before the ref tells them to go back to theor corners. Its at this point where he looks in the his opponents eyes and it just throws them off.