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.
I agree with pretty much everything he had to say. I know a lot of people are all over fedors nuts which is fine and all but the ufc is doing fine with out him if he wants to go to a little mma league please do you will no longer be considered the best in the world.
It seemed like a lot of fighters who struggled in the UFC would go to pride with more success. I think fedor will suffer a loss if he comes to ufc. I beleive ufc fighters are GENERALLY more well-rounded than pride fighters. I beleive that if anyone can beat fedor, it's couture. Try to think of a fighter as skilled and well rounded that fedor has fought. You cant. Randy, i beleive, would win this fight (if it occurs) cause it will have to be standing and/or in the clinch. Fedor usually wins when the fight turns to a wrestling submission match
What an uneducated dumbass that wrote this article. Fedor hasn't beaten any real competition? Nogueira is struggling in the UFC??? He's rated as the second best heavyweight in the ******* world (by MMAWeekly at least). Just because Cro Cop is having a midlife crisis right now, Fedor is automatically a shit fighter?????
If anyone wrote a shit article like this about a famous soccer or baseball player, he'd get so much heat for it he'd be forced to retire.
Pride and UFC rules are like apples and oranges, so I don't understand why people are so shocked that Pride fighters have had a tough time adjusting.
Personally, I think Fedor's style is MUCH better suited for a cage than a ring, he would make the transition much easier than any of the other Pride fighters.
As for this supposed argument, if anything this writer sounds like he is generally new to the MMA game and all over Randy Couture's nutsack.
It's not the fact Fedor has beaten some of the top fighters in the HW division, it's the fact he's done it so easily. I don't need to go over the stats, but to discredit his performances by using MMA math is a slap in the face to the Michael Jordan of our sport.
As for this supposed argument, if anything this writer sounds like he is generally new to the MMA game and all over Randy Couture's nutsack.
It's not the fact Fedor has beaten some of the top fighters in the HW division, it's the fact he's done it so easily. I don't need to go over the stats, but to discredit his performances by using MMA math is a slap in the face to the Michael Jordan of our sport.
Michael Jordan was the most recognizable sports figure in the world at one point. My point is that Fedor through his achievements as a Mixed Martial Artist has reached that iconic status, much like Michael Jordan did whether you think he was great or not. :dunno:
Michael Jordan was the most recognizable sports figure in the world at one point. My point is that Fedor through his achievements as a Mixed Martial Artist has reached that iconic status, much like Michael Jordan did whether you think he was great or not. :dunno:
more people watched and cheered for the bulls then they did their own team because of Jordan and the bulls. He was the most recognizable face in the world.
nothing else about jordan if you want to talk about that send me a link and well discuss it there, but you better have fact or i dont wanna hear the bullsh!+
So other then getting caught with the head kick what part of that fight was mediocre? The part where he outboxed the shit out of him before and AFTER taking a shot that would have put 99% of fighters out on their feet. Yeah really mediocre.
Although I disagree with some of the opinions this guy has made, I have yet to see many of you argue intellectually against it. Most of the counter arguments I see in this thread consists of calling the author a dumbass.
So other then getting caught with the head kick what part of that fight was mediocre? The part where he outboxed the shit out of him before and AFTER taking a shot that would have put 99% of fighters out on their feet. Yeah really mediocre.
I agree, Nogueira showed a hell of a lot of heart in that fight. He took Herring down pretty much at will, outstruck him (with the exception of the kick) and generally controlled the entire pace of the fight. Not sure which fight jasvll was watching. :dunno:
Although I disagree with some of the opinions this guy has made, I have yet to see many of you argue intellectually against it. Most of the counter arguments I see in this thread consists of calling the author a dumbass.
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.
Comparing Fedor to other Pride fighters is simply ludicrous. Rampage started his career off fighting in a cage, so he knows the ins and outs of cage-fighting, unlike Nogueira, Cro Cop AND Henderson (whose last cage battles were 9-10 years ago).
Fedor has fought in both cage and ring settings, and his style is VERY similar to Randy's but dare I say it, MUCH more ferocious.
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.
So because Nogueira almost got KO'd he's all of a sudden a can or "struggling"? Give me a break. Until Fedor came along, everyone thought that Nogueira would always hold the heavyweight crown.
Comparing UFC Cro Cop to Pride Cro Cop is absolutely ridiculous as well. If you look at the Cro Cop that KO'd Silva, Aleksander, Vovchanchyn, etc you're looking at a completely different fighter. The ring was MUCH better suited to Cro Cop and to suggest that his success in Pride was due to a lack of good competition is ridiculously insulting.
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.
What does this have to do with anything? Yes, don't count Randy out. But don't count Fedor out either. Everyone thought Fedor was screwed against Hunt, Fujita and Randleman. Look at how quickly he turned those fights around and came out the winner.
Happy with that breakdown of a completely flawed argument? The guy can't even spell octagon.
So other then getting caught with the head kick what part of that fight was mediocre? The part where he outboxed the shit out of him before and AFTER taking a shot that would have put 99% of fighters out on their feet. Yeah really mediocre.
Couture's losses to good fighters:
Chuck
Ricco
Vitor
Then he lost to:
Valentijn Overeem
Mikhail Illoukhine
Enson Inuoe
WTF?
How do you compare 16-8 to 26-1?
Fedor has fought better competition than Randy as well, so to say Randy is better than Fedor is completely illogical until they fight. You can't knock perfection. Quit trying.
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