A few losses in a row means you are shot.....Re-evaluating Fedor's Legacy

He went from one of the smartest fighters ever in the strategic aspect of the game to a ****ing wildly swinging caveman. Has really little to do with his physical attributes.

 

****ing right. :good

:hat

 

Agreed. The Fujita hook and the Randleman suplex have nothing on that punch ......

 

:good

 

You're not seriously saying that Fujita and Henderson are the only two times in Fedor's entire career that he has ever been hit by punches he didn't see coming, are you? Stoo, Fedor is not Willie Pep. He's been crunched many times by flush shots in exchanges that he wasn't prepared for. I'll have to dig out the dvds to find examples of this if you are genuinely making this argument, but off the top of my head I'm sure Crocop, Rogers, Bigfoot and more hit him with flush shots he didn't anticipate. To handpick only two punches from a long career which serve your argument is not valid IMO.

 

I'll have a look through the back catalogue when I have time then. I'm certain Fedor has been tagged flush by shots he didn't anticipate throughout his career, and has never been temporarily sparked the way he was vs Henderson, even when hit by shots thrown with far greater leverage by bigger, heavier men.

 

The point I will shortly make will stand in opposition to your point, backed up by video evidence. You are suggesting that the punch that Henderson stopped him with would have achieved the same result in his Pride heyday because Fujita rocked him with another punch he didn't see. I am opposing this, because I believe the evidence will show he has been hit by punches he didn't see coming on various occasions before, and NEVER until Henderson was he temporarily sparked by it, therefore his reaction to a punch IS different now than it was then. :good

 

Regardless, a punch thrown with leverage by a 240+lbs man >>> a punch thrown with no leverage by a 207lbs man. That's just science.

 

I'll make a different point regarding the fight with Silva.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTDMrTIvUxM[/ame]

A straight shot thrown so fast that Fedor had no time to move his head, got smashed flush and his nose broke, stayed up. That punch was harder than the punch Dan sparked him with IMO. I really do think that the Bigfoot beating has physically eroded Fedor.

A view that many people subscribe to is that Manny Pacquiao was able to stop Erik Morales twice (and hand him the first legit KDs of his entire career) because even though Morales had never been stopped before, a career of tough fights with some especially damaging/punishing matches (eg Barrera) had worn down his punch resistance to the point that Pacquiao was able to stop a fighter who was pretty much unstoppable a few years earlier.

This is not actually a p-o-v that I agree with in that instance, but I think it does apply in Fedor's case. The Pride Fedor wouldn't have got knocked out by that punch from Dan, I really believe the video evidence supports that. A combination of age and one severe beating has left him a lesser fighter now.

 

I think this is closest to the truth. Fedor doesn't seem to be as motivated and have the drive to challenge himself to become greater. It seems like he is doing it more like a job and felt obligated to those who work with him as well as his fans.

As One Punch said, physically he is probably not way past prime but the difference in mentality changes him greatly as a fighter. Fedor may or may not be the GOAT to some but he is my favorite MMA fighter for more than just his skills and ability, the man is a very respectable person in many regards.

 

Alot of people use the "shot" card when their fav fighters lose. Truth is Fedor spent good years of his career fighting has beens and never wuz's.
Karma came back to haunt him and Finkel for their bull****.I personally was glad to watch him get finished 3 times in a row.:smoke