Will Vitaly Minakov be remembered????

[Lionheart7167]

An extremely dominant Bellator HW champ from 2012-2017, there was a moment where people were talking about him as a future all time great HW and dominant, p4p guy.
Then he kinda disappeared. Not sure if he lost interest in fighting or what. I know there were some contract issues with Bellator.
Regardless he finished his career at 22-2, holding wins over Bigfoot, Tony Johnson, Kongo, Volkov and a bunch of other names of the time.
Assuming he never fights again, will anyone remember him in 10-15 years????

 

[TorontoTO]

An extremely dominant Bellator HW champ from 2012-2017, there was a moment where people were talking about him as a future all time great HW and dominant, p4p guy.
Then he kinda disappeared. Not sure if he lost interest in fighting or what. I know there were some contract issues with Bellator.
Regardless he finished his career at 22-2, holding wins over Bigfoot, Tony Johnson, Kongo, Volkov and a bunch of other names of the time.
Assuming he never fights again, will anyone remember him in 10-15 years????

Will anyone remember most UFC champs in 10-15 years? Do people remember Sean Sherk? Tim Sylvia?

 

[Lionheart7167]

Will anyone remember most UFC champs in 10-15 years? Do people remember Sean Sherk? Tim Sylvia?

True. I'm talking about the hardcores. Mainstream fight fans will barely remember Anderson Silva in a few years

 

[NovaJon93]

I recall he had considerable hype during his undefeated run. Absolutely ran through an up-and-coming Volkov and holds a win over one of his only two losses. Would have been nice to see him in the division's elite at some point.

 

[WolverReem]

True. I'm talking about the hardcores. Mainstream fight fans will barely remember Anderson Silva in a few years

This is very wrong. Most even new fans know of the Spider. The UFC doesn't produce that many stars

 

[MMALOPEZ]

No

 

[Go Go Plata]

Nope. He made a lot of bad decisions in his career. Hope he got paid

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Probably not no. Annoying as he was for sure a top 5 HW at his peak.

 

[SalvadorAllende]

Nah.. he was a monster but he got into politics and looked like he barely trained in the latter years of his career.

 

[Thesnake101]

What is there to be remembered? At his peak he went on to do politics, came back under the Fight Nights banner that only russians really care about, put on mostly forgettable performances in his return to Bellator (think Tim Johnson was his only highlight) and then pretty much retired.

He had a great skillset and some damn good wins for a HW outside of the UFC, but he's not a legend by any means. Could've been much more, which is a shame.

 

[Kingz]

No. He’s ultimately been a disappointment. He was looking dominant there for awhile but then long stretches of inactivity. Started getting fat. Looking weak against lesser competition than he was originally mowing down. I forgot all about him despite his record

 

[Arty]

An extremely dominant Bellator HW champ from 2012-2017, there was a moment where people were talking about him as a future all time great HW and dominant, p4p guy.
Then he kinda disappeared. Not sure if he lost interest in fighting or what. I know there were some contract issues with Bellator.
Regardless he finished his career at 22-2, holding wins over Bigfoot, Tony Johnson, Kongo, Volkov and a bunch of other names of the time.
Assuming he never fights again, will anyone remember him in 10-15 years????

He will be remembered as "The new Fedor who screwed up his career for Bellator instead of UFC"

 

[RonDante]

True. I'm talking about the hardcores. Mainstream fight fans will barely remember Anderson Silva in a few years

Casuals will see silva on jizzy’s record and say “can’t believe anyone considered him better than adesanya, he beat him clearly!”

 

[Thesnake101]

Dang, already forgot about him, at one time I had high hopes for him, but now totally gave up on him a long time ago. Now I have high hopes for Vadim Nemkov but he looks like another one who will not meet his potential. Same with One's Christian Lee.

Lee's situation is much more understandable though. Even if the speculation that his sister Victoria was forced to take up MMA, a sibling passing away is an extremely heavy blow that completely changes you, can't even imagine what it would feel like.

 

[careto]

By his family and friends.

 

[CinemaKingdom]

Will anyone remember most UFC champs in 10-15 years? Do people remember Sean Sherk? Tim Sylvia?

The younger guy at work, who is the only one into MMA, doesn't even know who Cain Velasquez and JDS are.

 

[Stan]

Minakov will only be remembered by those of us that watched him during the years. He had the potential and all the tools to become the GOAT and he just threw it away. All he had to do was fight out his Bellator contract then move to the UFC. He will always be known as the HW fighter that just threw it all away.

 

[bunt]

He was good at winning fights but skill set wise I remember his striking being really limited and a little amateur. He could bang but had no versatility at all and relied on his athleticism too much. When people could stick and move or match his declining athleticism towards the latter half of his career he looked bad at times. Good record and good skillset when he was on though.

 

[TheBrownRanger]

Spent way too much of his prime fighting dudes like TJ Linderman and Peter Graham in EFN.

Also, Bellator’s Heavyweight division took years to develop interesting contenders that Minakov didn’t already beat (Kongo and Volkov). They released Blagoi Ivanov and didn’t pull the trigger on Bobby Lashley. His contract was pretty shit from what I’ve read so he wasn’t too keen on coming back.

A comeback to the PFL could motivate him to return as they’re about to buyout Bellator but I doubt it.

 

[Cantalope]

He didn't get past the Kongo gate.