I am probably the biggest Fedor fanboy there is. Things changed almost immediately after the documentary or whatever it was called The Baddest Man on the Planet. I think he watched it and after that he solely relied on knocking people out which was never his thing. He was a well rounded fighter who usually won by submission, derived from his Sambo training. Once he started swinging for the fences it all went downhill.
He was most masterful IMO when he was 1st punching their lead hand out of the way and overhanding them. Somehow no one knew to look out for that back then.
That was almost always followed by a takedown, where he was fantastic on the ground.
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I would say once the injuries started piling up and he stopped doing Sambo full time was the start of the decline. When he lost to Ivanov in Sambo it was like there was a glitch in the matrix.
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The sad fact is no matter how much we love them they all decline at some point, thatās the sport unfortunately. Father Time is the Undisputed Champ. It just really really put salt in the wound still to this day to see him lose to Bigfoot Silva.
That was a tough one to watch. To me it doesnāt take away from all he did in the Pride Never Die days but man that sucked to see such a low caliber fighter beat him.
The sport is rough to watch sometimes.
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No, he would have exposed all the haters.
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Road Rash was the fucking best
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I canāt get into MMA anymore after this past era of guys retired. I donāt think weāll see anything like Pride/Strikeforce/UFC Pre 2016
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Exite Bike?
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Yes thatās it
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Pretty much the same with me. I watched it all when I could stream it for free. I never minded paying for a good PPV either but when I look at them now, why would I pay $50 min for 1 or 2 people I even recognize. It just got way to over saturated.
Maybe Iām just too old for the current sport.
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Thatās the area where Fedor ā to this day ā did it better than anyone I have seen.
He was masterful in a very specific yet important transition phase of fighting.
He would come in throwing heavy leather that his opponents had to respect, then flow seamlessly into throw attempts.
It was masterful!
It wasnāt like a wrestler who might use feints and the threat of a takedown to set up strikes or a shotā¦
Because Fedor had such slick hips, he could come in fully committing to his strikes, and use that momentum to push his opponents off balance and set up elite level throws.
Then, once on the ground, he had slick submissions, and some of the most damaging and effective G&P we have ever seen.
Do you protect your head, or brace to defend the throw? Meanwhile, itās happening very fast vs a fighter who somehow possessed both total poise and maximum killer instinct.
Fedor was the perfect blend of tactician and killer.
.
.
A fighter falling in love with his hands is almost always a bad sign.
Happened to Rampage too.
But with Fedor it was more than that.
It was a mental thing.
We could see him getting noticably softer physically. There were rumors of his training being dumbed way down.
Then the comments about winning/losing being in Godās hands ā not that thereās anything wrong with believing that ā just that it coincided with an observable apathy.
What bothers me almost as much as the downfall ā is the haters using those losses in an attempt to discredit his prime run.
The expectation ā in hindsight ā was too high.
How can a fighter be expected to dominate an insanely competitive HW division for the better part of a decade ā hardly even losing a round-- then be expected to stay just as hungry and just as sharp to dominate the best guys of the next era?
It would be like having back-to-back legendary careers ā a near impossibility.
Nobody dominated like Fedor. Certainly not in the bigger weight classes.
Fedor, when it comes down to it, was more dominant at his peak than John Jones has been for his entire career.
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Had it on NES.
Games like that were so cool!
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Oh itās definitely watered down.
On the old site we used to talk about the double-edged sword if it went āmainstreamā.
This was before TUF or even The Best Damn Sports Show.
Turns out, pretty much all the often repeated predictions of those conversations came true ā for better or worse ā and kind of both really.
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I just remember fedor getting lucky vs Matt Lindland (rope grabbing)
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This is what we do to wise asses like youā¦ we put yous in da restroom
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Amen. Having a fight party with the boys was the days. No one does that anymore. For boxing or mma
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Exactly 1:18 E-Fed cheats by holding on to teh rope! After having the reff pry his arm from it!
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Fedor came very close to getting KOād in the Cro Crop fight. CC threw a left high kick that Fedor didnāt block but it went just above his head.
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Who the hell knows. But fedor grabbed the ropes like 3 times and the last one led directly to the win.
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