When do you think Fedor Emelianenko should've retired?

[kingghidrah]

At the time I was still so drunk on the unlimited invincibility of the last emperor & I just thought Rogers fought the fight of his life before Fedor fucked him up , but now with 15 years of hindsight he was obviously in decline at that point

People forgot how feared Rogers was at the time, and many thought he'd be the one to beat Fedor. Hindsight shows he was nothing special but you can't have hindsight in advance.

 

[kingghidrah]

People are using hindsight to vote that he should've retired right before his winning streak ended. That's highly unlikely, why would he ever have done that?

In terms of realistic decision making not based on hindsight the right time to retire would've been the Monson fight.

Or why not when he ACTUALLY RETIRED post Pedro Rizzo

 

[DarthChen731]

After the Maldonado debacle that should have been it

 

[ComfortablyNumb55]

Should've retired undefeated to keep it a mystery like Khabib.

Now people think Khabib is actually top 10 or something.

Khabib makes millions off the mystery.

 

[blackheart]

He should've retired before the Hendo fight, so that I didn't have to watch my two all-time favorites fight each other.

 

[orca]

drug testing in strikeforce
the beginning of decline

 

[blaseblase]

He shouldn't have come back from his first retirement, he had a glass chin after that and nothing at that point could have added to his legacy.

 

[NoSmilez]

Probably when he beat Timmy.

 

[Deleted member 110072]

You could argue when he did "retire" in 2013 was actually quite a bad time.

He'd not beaten any big names recently I spose but he looked like he had improved a bit since the previous loses, that he'd adjusted to a declining skill set and become more of a counter fighter. I still think he could have been competitive at the upper end of the division at that point were as when he did return he was more of a glass canon.

I do kind of wonder though whether he may have been looking at retirement after the Barnett fight in Affliction in 2009 and when they fell though he kind of got draged into fighting in Strikeforce.

 

[Fight Professor]

He should have retired after the Arlovski fight instead of joining Strikeforce.

US MMA is just different. You have a cage, athletic commisions, fighters that train in advanced camps, weight cutting…

He also did not have much to prove for his legacy.

 

[World eater]

Never.

 

[Deleted member 110072]

He should have retired after the Arlovski fight instead of joining Strikeforce.

US MMA is just different. You have a cage, athletic commisions, fighters that train in advanced camps, weight cutting…

He also did not have much to prove for his legacy.

Again I do kind of wonder whether he was looking to the Barnett fight on the thirs Affliction show as his retirement match(or at least the end to his high end career), besides the Randy fight that would have been the last of the biggest names of his era knocked off. The Rogers fight was booked quite fast as a replacement for that and kind of drew him into SF but at the time people like Werdum and Bigfoot were not massive names.

Personally I don't think the enviroment was the issue, he'd carried on having sucess in the US post Pride. Maybe the cage was an issue but I don't think one which really should have held him back if motivated and it was just that motivation which I think was the issues, he was dropping off physically but he also could not sustain the level of commitment to training he had in the 00's.

To be honest I think thats a big factor in a lot of elite fighters having a prime around 8-9 years, the level of motivation to train to the level needed to reach that is hard to sustain, espeically when you become rich.

 

[cburm]

During affliction when he smoke the ufc hw champ tim sylvia woulda ben perfect and he didn't have any losses still

 

[Johnnny]

• After he beat Brett Rogers. - 7 November 2009

• After he lost to Fabricio Werdum. - 26 June 2010

• After he lost to Bigfoot Silva. - 12 February 2011

• After he lost to Dan Henderson. - 30 July 2011

• After he beat Fábio Maldonado - 17 June 2016

• After he lost to Matt Mitrione - 24 June 2017

• After he lost to Ryan Bader for the first time - 26 January 2019

 

[Koya]

After he beat Pedro Rizzo in 2012. Should have put that in the options

 

[Levi_]

If we are going to hindsight it, obviously after Rogers. Reasonably speaking, the Bigfoot fight was the true sign that he had gone over a cliff and it was time to quit. After that, all of the damage was unnecessary.

 

[Killer Kadoogan]

i think they should retire when they want. no one can erase past accomplishments. they can remember it incorrectly, try to revise them, but nothing can erase the past accomplishments, and true fans remember that.

 

[Deleted member 587672]

A fighter should retire when he chooses

 

[WOLVERINEKILLS]

After the Brett Rodgers fight. Brett Rodgers was high risk, low reward, and he looked a bit out of shape & slower, his trainers even said he was slowing down.

 

[OLD RED]

drug testing in strikeforce
the beginning of decline