Why Did Fedor's Prime End Early?

[Rod Farva]

Why do some guys look great at 50 and others look like crap at 35?

Why are some guys slim and trim and I am a fat pig?

 

[george14]

his “prime” is pretty debatable....imo 2 things went down with Fyodor...

First he had lots of mileage on him and with time his speed, raw power and reflexes declined. He is a tiny hw and relied heavily on that to win.

Second.. mma evolved and the freak shows ended. Anyone not admiting either one of these two is plain delusional . Fedor fought a good share of cans and that came to an end in strikeforce. You cannot claim that he lost only cause he got old.... it doesnt tell the whole story.

Speaking of cans....pretty sure the UFC signed CM fucking Punk.

25% of the current UFC Heavyweight roster has a losing record in the UFC. Can-city.

 

[Ilovepizza]

I know people hate reading this, but he wasn’t as good as people think he was.

 

[Jesus H. Sherdog]

Fedor’s prime end early? He’s the longest reigning HW champ in MMA history.

Why did Cain’s prime end early? Now there’s a question.

 

[Bouboumaster]

I don't really like Fedor, but I appreciate him enough to call him the second best ever, after GSP.
The difference, I think, between GSP and Fedor is that GSP always try to stay ahead of the curve.
Today's fighter are following GSP's blue print, but GSP still try to bring new things to the sport.
Fedor never really changed, and his division became better.

Still, what he did in his prime was ridiculous. Might be the best "Prime" ever.

 

[HIMBOB]

5 years at the pinnacle is not a short amount of time.

 

[Lord Grey]

Henderson and Overeem may not have declined as early or rapidly as Fedor did, but we know that medication is a big part of what kept/keeps them going. Perhaps if Fedor used the same medications as those two, he would not have passed his prime so early.

But as others have pointed out, Fedor relied on speed much more than other figthers did, and that tends to go earlier than power or chin.

I know people hate reading this, but he wasn’t as good as people think he was.

Depends on the people. It's true that he wasn't as good as some people think he was, but it's equally true that he was much better than some people think he was.

 

[FKA]

This is one of the most debated topics among Sherdog's martial arts experts today, Fedor suddenly became "past prime" just one year after the single greatest performance career vs Andrei Arlovski.

One idea is mileage; fedor had been through 32 fights when he lost to werdum and 35 when he lost to Henderson. This notion is completely invalid though as Hendo had been through more fights with 8 losses to fedors 2 at the time.
Lets compare Fedor's Mileage with other "high mileage" fighters:

Overeem: 65 mma fights, 15 brutal losses and 14 Kickboxing matches
But he just recently defeated Werdum, Hunt, Arlovski and JDS, just got better wins than fedor had during his entire career in 2 years.

Jeremy Stephens 41 fights, 14 losses but just put on some the best fights of his career

RDA- 37 fights same age as fedor when he was "past prime" but he's now the 1# contender at a higher weight class then he's ever fought

Michael Bisping- older than fedor had more fights when he beat Luke rockhold(who would kill fedor btw)

Examining the evidence , its clear that Fedor's mileage and age was very average when he lost meaning that there were other factors at work.

Was fedor scared or uncomfortable fighting in the US? Would Fedor have won if pride rules were used instead(even though fedor doesn't use soccer kicks ect.)? Did Fedor only perform so well because of certain medications?

What do you guys think was the reason Fedor lost?

I'm having some serious issues here with pretty much everything you have to say here so let's address it.......


"This is one of the most debated topics among Sherdog's martial arts experts today, Fedor suddenly became "past prime" just one year after the single greatest performance career vs Andrei Arlovski."

First off.......sherdog and experts in the same sentence lol c'mon man.Secondly single greatest performance of his career????? WTF are you talking about?Fedors win to get the PRIDE HW Belt over Big Nog and win over crocop shit on his win over Arlovski. And if we are talking actual performance.....fedor dominated Big Nog and Crocop in their strongest disciplines and they were top hws at the time.Arlovski was a top 10-15 HW but fedor looked like shit just winging punches and got caught alot by counters.


"One idea is mileage; fedor had been through 32 fights when he lost to werdum and 35 when he lost to Henderson. This notion is completely invalid though as Hendo had been through more fights with 8 losses to fedors 2 at the time."

Ok let me break it down yet again on fedors wear and tear....

He's been doing Judo and Sambo since a very young age.Combat Sambo is basically mma it includes striking,grappling,and submissions.He served in the Russian military from 1995-1997 as a military firefighter. He began doing world class level Judo competition and Combat Sambo in 1998 and did both until 1999.He then started MMA in 2000 while still doing Combat Sambo at a world class level.Fedor essentially had 2 MMA careers at the same time(undefeated in both for ridiculous amount of time)at HW.Other guys at lighter weights aren't facing the same power or size and none of them had as grueling of a career doing both mma and Combat sambo.




"Overeem: 65 mma fights, 15 brutal losses and 14 Kickboxing matches.But he just recently defeated Werdum, Hunt, Arlovski and JDS, just got better wins than fedor had during his entire career in 2 years."

Overeem a known walking pharmacy most of his career only beat 1 HW in the best HW division in PRIDE Sergei Kharitinov then dropped weight,while fedor ruled the roost.Overeem is 4 yrs younger then Fedor and though he beat Werdum,Hunt,Arlovski,and JDS none of those was for a title belt....and fedor beat hunt and Arlovski too.




"Was fedor scared or uncomfortable fighting in the US? Would Fedor have won if pride rules were used instead(even though fedor doesn't use soccer kicks ect.)? Did Fedor only perform so well because of certain medications?"


Had nothing to do with being in the USA but rules and cage probably made a little difference especially the rules.Soccer kicks arent the issue its the round time .....I'd love to see these ufc hws endure a 10 min round lmao.Fedors never tested positive throughout championship Judo,Sambo,and in MMA in Strikeforce,and Affliction, and Bellator when guys like Josh Barnett Failed the same tests fedor took.But to humor you even if he did take stuff it was on an even playing field against guys who could take the same stuff and still dominated.Also GUYS like Randy Couture and Dan Henderson owe TRT their later years of success in MMA especially Randy.


Fedor physically was still Prime after PRIDE went under but mentally he was checked out dealing with finkelstein and growing amounts of obligations be it speaking appearances, training younger guys,or being in government.Fedor stopped taking part in elite camps and just started working training in around his personal life,something he still does.He fights now for sheer fun of it to test himsel as a lifelong competitor and to please the fans.Fedor was able to rattle off wins against Arlovski, Sylvia,and Rogers all by brawling not using much skill just winging punches.

 

[WARinsertname]

Fedor’s prime end early? He’s the longest reigning HW champ in MMA history.

Why did Cain’s prime end early? Now there’s a question.

Sadly, a combination of him being made of glass...And having trainers that treated him like he wasn't made of glass.

Shame.

 

[Idonotbelieveit]

On top for 7 years

Not early

 

[Seaside]

MMA evolved. Fedor didn’t .

I am critical of the guy but that is no true he just stopped fighting smart and went to shit physically. He was always a well rounded grappler better than all HW's today at grappling except werdum basically. Standing he was good enough to stand with Cro cop, he had/has KO power and decent boxing, he has a good clinch game. That right there plus deadly ground and pound and submissions on top and off back is like

5 areas

on top submission
on bottom submission skills
ground and pound
standing KO power in his boxing
Good takedowns and takedown defense

 

[WARinsertname]

I am critical of the guy but that is no true he just stopped fighting smart and went to shit physically. He was always a well rounded grappler better than all HW's today at grappling except werdum basically. Standing he was good enough to stand with Cro cop, he had/has KO power and decent boxing, he has a good clinch game. That right there plus deadly ground and pound and submissions on top and off back is like

5 areas

on top submission
on bottom submission skills
ground and pound
standing KO power in his boxing
Good takedowns and takedown defense

Underrated kicking game too. Hoost would rave about how fast his leg/body kicks were when he went to train with him before the CC fight.

 

[jeskola]

because he prefers it rare and was hungry?

 

[gondo]

10 years on top and got complacent. When you’re the top dog long enough everyone aims directly at you and has years worth of tape to study. Look at Cruz/Garbrandt where Cody was planning to fight Cruz years in advance and picked a style to counter with.

 

[C0NCH3TO]

Speaking of cans....pretty sure the UFC signed CM fucking Punk.

25% of the current UFC Heavyweight roster has a losing record in the UFC. Can-city.

sure jose canseco, hmc, jaidep singh and butterbean would do pretty damn well in the UFC

 

[FKA]

sure jose canseco, hmc, jaidep singh and butterbean would do pretty damn well in the UFC

........James toney.........

 

[Deezer]

the single greatest performance career vs Andrei Arlovski.

Wut?? A great win. But not a great performance. Beating Nog and Crop Cop where his best wins.
Comparing an aging HW with Aging LWs is completely pointless too.

 

[DesiredUserName]

Stopped reading at "Sherdogs martial arts experts"

 

[RoninJin]

His training camp and fighting style failed to match the qualities of his opponents. Back in Japan Fedor was more well verse with GNP and submission. He didn't just depend on standup.

Then you see his skills in SF were slowly deminishimg. He goes out there just to brawl and end up getting caught. He had Werdum down and end up getting tapped. He had Hendo down and end up getting reversed and koed. Same with Bigfoot, had no answer in dealing with Bigfoot's ground game.

In his return fight, he almost got ktfo by Fabio.

 

[Stevanchez]

Meh you can rationalize it all you want. He got beat by a small LHW who spent most of his career at 185. He then almost got finished by a journeyman LHW in his own country. The fight probably would have been stopped in most promotions.

He's definitely the HW GOAT as of right now, but the overall GOAT, no

I have GSP as GOAT and Fedor as HWGOAT.

I wasn't "rationalizing" anything. Was anything I said incorrect or any facts changed?

The truth is, losing to two of the greatest mixed martial artist of all-time and a top HW that would fight for the #1 HW Championship 2 years later is a stupid thing to use as a slight on one of the (at least) top 4 greatest MMA careers. Especially when other great mixed martial artist have WAY worse losses.

You're the one amending results to fit your own opinion because the facts don't fit your beliefs. Henderson is a small LHW that is capable of cutting to MW. Fedor is an extremely small HW. Who cares? Doesn't change the FACT that they both weighed-in as HWs or that Hendo was a LHW Champion and a top LHW that beat multiple top LHWs leading into and following the Fedor fight.

Fedor, as a 40 year old unranked fighter, got dropped by an unranked HW that is capable of cutting to LHW. Doesn't change the FACT that he easily won the following rounds and was officially awarded a decision victory. Who cares? It's not even relevant to this conversation.