Why doesn't Werdum get credit for beating Fedor?

Was Fedor completely past it when he lost to Werdum?

  • Yes

    Votes: 16 18.2%

  • No

    Votes: 72 81.8%
  • Total voters
    88
johnmangala

johnmangala

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Nobody really gives him credit. Everyone downplays his win by saying Fedor was past his prime. Fedor was 32 when he lost for the first time. At heavyweight that is young. When Fedor lost to Bader I could say he was truly past his prime and washed... but for Werdum? He's slightly past his prime at best. Some could argue he was still at his best. Yet no one gives credit to Werdum for figuring out Fedor and laying out a trap that Fedor fell right into.
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Ummm....he did. Were you not watching MMA back then? It catapulted Werdum to the top of the conversation. He was on the rise until he lost his belt to a Stipe KO and then lost to Overeem....then Volkov...then got popped for roids and given a two year suspension. After that his shine was deeply tarnished. BUt most still consider him one of the best grapplers in the HW dividion.
 
Kungpowking said:
Ummm....he did. Were you not watching MMA back then? It catapulted Werdum to the top of the conversation. He was on the rise until he lost his belt to a Stipe KO and then lost to Overeem....then Volkov...then got popped for roids and given a two year suspension. After that his shine was deeply tarnished. BUt most still consider him one of the best grapplers in the HW dividion.
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All I was seeing is that Fedor was past his prime and would beat him if he wasn't (slightly) past his prime. Nobody really said the better man won that night.
 
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johnmangala said:
Nobody really gives him credit. Everyone downplays his win by saying Fedor was past his prime. Fedor was 32 when he lost for the first time. At heavyweight that is young. When Fedor lost to Bader I could say he was truly past his prime and washed... but for Werdum? He's slightly past his prime at best. Some could argue he was still at his best. Yet no one gives credit to Werdum for figuring out Fedor and laying out a trap that Fedor fell right into.
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Its true he was only 32 but he was also the #1 HW for over seven years at that point and had over 30 bouts with at least one major surgery to his hand. Definitely not washed but maybe not in his prime.

That said I suspect the main reason its not remembered as a big win is because Werdum lost his next fight and Fedor lost his next two so it felt more like Fedor slipping than a Werdum triumph. In hindsight though Werdum was clearly elite, sure he lost in the Strikeforce HW GP but as we all know he eventually won the UFC title five years later so I think his loss to Overeem was because Overeem was peaking while Werdum was not
 
Because Fedor is over rated. If he was all that he would have accepted the offer to fight real compitition in the UFC. Instead he selected the "b" level fights to finish out his career.
 
He got major credit, he set up Fedor in his trap because he knew how hyper aggressive Fedor is when he thinks he got you hurt, he goes all out to finish you. And Werdum played possum and baited Fedor to get into his guard twice. It was brilliant gameplan. Fedor MO is to finish you no matter what, doesn't matter what position or where the fight is. The guy is looking for the kill.

And Werdum harnessed that energy against him. It was brilliant. Considering Fedor never really lost a fight until than.

WAR Werdum.
 
He got credit but it seems like Fedor was only past his prime once he lost. I dunno, some of the Fedor arguments are just weird to me. He was past it at 32 and past it when he fought Hendo who is smaller, older, and also competed in another sport...?

Fedor is an all time great and I don't want to take away from that but I feel like a lot of excuses are made for him.
 
khaotiic said:
Because Fedor is over rated. If he was all that he would have accepted the offer to fight real compitition in the UFC. Instead he selected the "b" level fights to finish out his career.
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Strikeforce had the stronger HW division, didn’t it? UFC’s top guys were Cain, Junior, and Brock. Overeem knocked out 2 of them and Werdum took out Cain.
 
Nobody who was watching at the time would say this, and the fact that everybody is saying No in the poll supports this. Fedor wasn't at his best by the Werdum fight, but by no means was he "completely past it." For fighters like Fedor where speed and reflexes are such a big part of their success, age becomes a real hindrance real fast. I don't think that the lightning fast Fedor who was out of triangles before Nog could even throw them up would've been caught, but his reflexes and his speed weren't as sharp, and so when he was playing with the fire of Werdum's guard, he got burned. Even a .00001% slow down can be a problem when you're fighting the absolute best in the world, and Fedor proved - finally, after so many years of doubting it - that he was, indeed, human.

That night was something else, too. The forums went down immediately and stayed down for so long. Everybody lost their minds, nobody could believe it was true. I couldn't believe it happened. Fedor actually losing. It was mind-boggling and it broke the forums that night.
 
Islam Imamate said:
Its true he was only 32 but he was also the #1 HW for over seven years at that point and had over 30 bouts with at least one major surgery to his hand. Definitely not washed but maybe not in his prime.
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The thing is this loss had nothing to do with Fedor not being in his prime and a lot to do with Fedor being overrated. Fedor completely misjudged the knockdown, thinking Werdum was stunned when it was mostly a slip, and then Fedor jumped into Werdum's guard, and then Fedor took his time to start defending the triangle-armbar. Those are low fight-IQ mistakes, not getting old mistakes. There's no chance Jon Jones or GSP make those kind of mistakes even five years from now. Frankly, it was a really good win for Werdum, but it was an ugly loss for Fedor.

Islam Imamate said:
That said I suspect the main reason its not remembered as a big win is because Werdum lost his next fight and Fedor lost his next two so it felt more like Fedor slipping than a Werdum triumph. In hindsight though Werdum was clearly elite, sure he lost in the Strikeforce HW GP but as we all know he eventually won the UFC title five years later so I think his loss to Overeem was because Overeem was peaking while Werdum was not
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Definitely the first part of this, although regarding the loss to Overeem I'd say there's no reason to search for a reason. Overeem wasn't an all time great, but he was a really good heavyweight. There's nothing shocking about even peak Werdum losing to Overeem, even if peek Werdum was the better fighter. Sometimes the better fighter loses.
 
He did receive his credits but maybe not as much as you expected or seen

The way Werdum won is a strategic way of luring your opponent into his strength, nothing dirty nor illegal

Maybe due to the way he won and even refusing a rematch makes some people rethink about giving him credits or more credit as its a big win

And plus anyone would unlikely fall into that trap again. Hence I believe Werdum refused a rematch and we can even see how silly when his strategy looked when it didn't work. Just look at the Alistair rematch, Werdum pretended to get rocked so many times and flopping to his back
 
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