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Disrespecting the Champ - Bleacher Report
Disrespecting the Champ - Bleacher Report
The big news in Mixed Martial Arts is that Dallas Mavericks billionaire owner Mark Cuban—with the help of Dallas native and MMA great Guy Mezger—is now starting a new MMA promotion.
This is great news for MMA fans everywhere because we all know Cuban will spend a ton to get the top talent in the world and he has already mentioned the name of pride heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko. That has to be bad news for UFC president Dana White, who has been struggling in his negoitiations with the legendary Russian.
The sticking point is that White reportedly does not want Fedor to continue fighting in Russia's tough ***** circuit, the reasoning being that UFC does not want to have it's champion risk losing in a nontitle match. Common sense thinking that has brought White so much success.
Now I acknowledge I have never heard Dana White ever say those words—but every internet fan and so called expert has anointed Fedor as the UFC champion, even before he steps in the cage. The big problem is that they already have a living legend as champion in Randy Couture. How many times is the MMA world going to write this man off?
I bet even if he beats Fedor we will no doubt hear what an upset it is. I will never question Fedor Emelianenko's greatness but there are some factors to consider before we just hand him the undisputed Heavyweight title
1. Pride fighters have struggled to adapt to the octogon.
Remember how Mirko Cro Cop was supposed to dominate UFC and take Couture's title? Well that never worked out. Dan Henderson faded in his unifaction with Rampage Jackson, who is one of the rare pride guys to succeed in the octogon.
2. Level of competition.
Fedor has with all due respct not exactly beaten the best around lately.Matt lindland is a great fighter but he is a middleweight contender not a heavyweight or even lightheavyweight. 2 wins over a badly faded Mark Coleman who was years past his prime. Same goes for Kevin Randleman. Nayoa Ogawa and Yuji Nagata were pro wrestlers the only real top notch competition has been Antonio Noguiera who has struggled in UFC and Cro Cop who has been a major bust.
3. Never count out Randy Couture.
Period. How many times can he keep pulling out the wins? That is the question from the doubters well I say lets give him the benefit of the doubt until he is 100% done and beaten.Fedor Emelianenko may dominate MMA for a long time, but he has to come to where the best competition is, and that is the UFC. Until then I will have a real hard time Worshiping him like the rest of the MMA world seems to.
Besides: maybe Couture will pull another "miracle" out again. I will not bet against him.