Teach me about Fedor. His style, his resume, why he's the best.

Fedor is great for many reasons. To start, he is amazingly flexible and quick off his back, see how quickly he sinks this armbar.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hK_01mY22o[/ame]

Fedor, is amazingly durable and keeps his focus as well.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K0OJ6-aauo[/ame]

To top it off, he has knockout power. He finishes nearly everybody he fights via sub or knockout.. He also has incredible timing with his punches.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1ZnI8WV6UM[/ame]
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbRH_INvHMc[/ame]

World class skill on display
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfEVb7UpY0Q[/ame]

 

The strengths would be his fast and powerful hands and the crazy angles in which he throws them. Great grappling base hes got great takedowns and isnt easy to get down and if you do hes an instant armbar. Fedor has the best hips in MMA thats why he so easily generates power and secures armbars. Probablly the best ground and pound in the game its vicious, power, accurate and hes very active with it.

Weaknesses probablly are only his paper thin skin and wide punches. Right now hes getting away with his awful boxing technique but you have to figure one day an elite striker would be able to pick him apart right ? Fedor bleeds alot his only loss was via a cut quickly into the bout and he actually had a NC because of a cut also.

Brock Lesnar is bigger but im not sure what hes supposed to be able to do Fedor. Lesnar wont outstrike him and I dont see him doing much to Fedor on the ground. Lesnar is still green and Fedor is a one trick pony off his back like a Frank Mir who cant defend GNP and only has quick submissions. If Fedor where to get on top Lesnar is could get terrifying agian Lesnar is still green and a big, powerful wrestler like him will be incredibly uncomfertable of his back.

Fedor has a pretty great resume just look at it on the Champions hes beat its amazing. Holds wins over former UFC/Pride Champions in Kevin Randleman, Mark Coleman 2x, Tim Sylvia, Andrei Arlovski, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira 2x, Mirko Cro Cop. Abu Dhabi Grappling Champion in Ricardo Arona. K-1 Champions like Mark Hunt and Semmy Schilt.

 

Strength:
1 - the best balance on the ground (not just for a hw)
2 - the best sub defense (in the sport, along with Penn)
3 - the best ground & pound (in the sport)
4 - one of the best sub offensive fighter too
5 - amazing stamina (especially for a guy of his size)
6 - amazing workrate. (see above)
7 - most important of all , one of the smartest fighter in the sport.
8 - Has KO power.
9 - top notch reflexes

Weakness:
1 - cuts extremely easily (and bleeds a lot)
2 - His striking (He's a grappler , excels in sambo & judo)
3 - doesn't have the best wrestling (but even if he goes to the ground , the fight will generally go to his advantage).

But he doesn't have a solid boxing technic...that's his major weakness. (but he's got great reflexes...which compensates a lot) best example of this: watch his fight against Arlovski (trained by Roach)....Arlovski has the better technic... Looks like he's hitting fedor...but doesn't.


Why is he the best ?

We can criticise fedor...saying that he fought freakshows & cans..(which is true). However , he also fought B level , gatekeepers , contenders , elites... and defeated them all.

Not everybody can say the same.

Anderson Silva lost against a "can".

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY86OktkiAY[/ame]

Also lost against a good but inconsistent fighter.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYN6U_85YCI[/ame]

(in other words , you can't blame these losses on "amazing" competition...not to mention silva cuts to fight at mw)

GSP lost against Serra (b level)...& Matt Hughes (ufc legend , top fighter but still overrated...His groundgame pales in comparison of both GSP & Penn)

Machida is quite one dimensional compared to emelianeko too....Fedor is "almost" perfect.

He is not god , and he's very beatable. (like everybody else). But he prevails in the face of adversity. There's no equivalent in the sport. (in terms of longevity & career).

 

Outstanding post my freind but one thing I didnt like was the Hughes/GSP 1 comment. I think its worth noting how green GSP was at that point in his career and you could see 4 years later when he totally grapple ****ed Hughes how much he had improved.

 

His striking is awful but brutal and effective. His grappling is sublime. Fedor will adapt to any situation and will find a way to win.

 

People talk about his striking like its bad. It's not technically good, yet he knocked Arlovski out, and really stood up against Crocop during a period of his career where he was the most dangerous and capable striker in MMA.

He makes up for less than great technique with uncanny timing of his right hand.

People talk about how his wrestling is sub par, but I don't think there are many people that would take a top notch wrestling game over the type of Sambo/ judo game he brings to the table. I mean, seriously... Who gives a **** about wrestling when you have his clinch and ground game? Would you trade wrestling talent for what he has going on?

 

Don't get me wrong. I think GSP is one of the best in the sport. As a matter of fact , i also think the likes of Anderson , Machida & Penn (and a few others , but i'm mentioning these guys because most fans tend to include them in their top P4P list)... Are also amazing.

And yeah , the GSP from 2004 wasn't as experienced (personally i'd argue that he already was experienced enough , and could've easily defeated Matt Hughes the first time but he gave the guy too much respect.. maybe he was starstruck or something. ).

The reason why i still mention this defeat is for the same reason i talk about Anderson's losses (against Takase & Chonan)..Difference is..Anderson was actually quite experienced at the time (in 2004). and people often forget that the guy is 35 yrs old )..Unlike GSP who's 28 now.

I have to talk about these losses because when people criticize fedor for fighting cans or b level fighters (yet they always forget to mention that he also defeated contenders , gatekeepers & top fighters..) , They conveniently forget to say that the likes of Silva , GSP , Penn...had to deal with a bunch of losses & these losses weren't always against the cream of the crop.

The point is....**** happens.

It happened to lennox (against rahman) to (prime) Aerts , (prime) Tyson, to (prime) crocop....etc...and i'm not insinuating that these were flukes.

**** almost happened to Muhammad ali against Henry Cooper (could've changed the course of boxing history)... And almost happened to Fedor against Fujita....But didn't.

When anderson was confronted by an unexpected situation...he failed.

So yes , these losses happened a long time ago.

But hey , is it an excuse to ignore them ? ...

Anderson started his career in 2000....(just like Fedor)
The night Silva lost to Chonan , Fedor was fighting prime Nogueira. (that was in 2004 both fedor and silva were on the same card..)...

I'm repeating myself here , but Penn , GSP , Anderson etc...are top quality fighters. I think it sucks to always talk about these losses because (obviously) their careers don't revolve around them.

But...if someone asks me why fedor "is the best"..I'm forced to mention these differences. Because that's what fedor is about. beating the odds. Maybe he'll start losing his next fights. But based on what he has achieved so far...there's no equivalent in the sport.

 

http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showthread.php?t=218828

Someone posted a video of Fedor vs Cro Cop here.

If you havent already watched it I would recommend it.

 

he beats everyone at their own game, he beat cro cop standing, he jumped into nog's guard and smashed him there etc, undefeated, has fought and beat the best in the world, the calmest fighter to fight in MMA he could be in a position that looks like anyone else is in they would lose but he always manages to come out the winner.

 

I dont think his striking is bad when compared to most of MMA, Arlovski is the best strikers in the HW and one of the best in MMA.....just has a terrible chin lol.

 

He got slammed on his head and his neck crunched, but like the terminator felt no pain, and had the guy in an armbar tapping 10 seconds later.

He is undefeated and fought the very best in pride, which at the time, had a far deeper talent pool than the ufc has ever had.

Almost all of his victories have been utterly decisive. No question at all to who won the fight

 

+1


What he said:good

 

mate i was you about a year ago.. and in my mind its simple.. He doesnt lose .. thats all he just wins no matter what never even looks like his in trouble just so calm and wins..

he'd beat brock cos .. he doesnt lose its that simple..his a machine a terminator and in his mind he cant get beat and he doesnt

 

Some want to give him crap about his striking against Arlovski but there was a veteren playing the game perfect. He threw what he had but also extending Arlovskis more able attack while doing it. Thats one of the most basic boxing and guerilla strategies. The young stud got played, simple as that.

Probably the one fight that can define his career to a tee, it doesn't matter your strength he's like a sun tzu in battle.

You can go on about the his extensive abilities, strength of attack, his oppositions weakness but his greatest strength is that he's a winner. Master of tactics, strategy and intuitive genius.