A Fedor Discussion

A Fedor Discussion: Best Heavyweight in the World?

Posted By: Marcus

UFC 100 answered a lot of questions for me. Right now, it is almost undisputed as to who the number one heavyweight in the UFC is. Brock Lesnar not only defeated Frank Mir, he made Mir look like a fool, and looked like he could have fought another fight and won. He answered my question of whether or not he was a good enough wrestler to outright neutralize someone's BJJ game.

However, the fight raised new questions to me. Now that Lesnar's beaten Mir and Couture, who the hell is going to challenge him now? It's obvious that middle-of-the-road MMA fighters can't do it. He picked apart Heath Herring without effort, so guys like Kongo would get wrecked. I'm not sure whether Cain Velasquez or Shane Carwin could take him either. Carwin has nutty strikes, but Lesnar will know that beforehand, and will go to ground and stay there. Cain Velasquez, on the other hand, has a good chance of going five rounds, but Lesnar's strength will probably keep him dominant.

Side Note: If you're on Kongo's nuts, hop off them. He's got no ground game whatsoever. Lesnar would take him down once, and Kongo would neither get up, nor remember how much France sucks afterward.

So, that leaves two guys who could really mess with Lesnar: Minotauro and Fedor. With Nog, I want to see how he performs against Couture before I say anything about him fighting Lesnar. Right now, I'd give him slight odds, but I've never seen Mir outright made to look like a rank amateur.

Fedor, on the other hand, is an enigma when it comes to the UFC. He's defeated the UFC champs of old, like Randleman and Coleman, and also has noteable wins over Tim Silvia and Andrei Arlovski. However, its those wins that make me question how well he would do in the UFC against someone like Couture or Lesnar.

Looking at it from a cynic's stance (it's called Cynic's Corner for a reason) I can't see Kevin Randleman during his Pride days even making a decent fight for Couture, and Lesnar would destroy him. The same goes for Coleman. Both men, though tremendous wrestlers, have questionable standup, and had gaping holes in their ground game that Fedor exploited. Also, both men have been beaten down badly by men smaller than they are, like Shogun Rua and Chuck Liddell. You can make the case that both hit almost as hard as a Heavyweight, but the point still stands.

As for Arlovski, let's take a good look at his fight with Fedor. Arlovski's hands were golden. He was punching like he was in a boxing match with Ali, not fighting Fedor. It was probably the best punching we've seen from him. The problem? A man who probably knows next to nothing about Muai Thai went for a flying knee, and Fedor caught him, hard. Though a lot of people love that fact, now let's compare it to something else. Ask youself this: Were you impressed when Houston Alexander knocked out Keith Jardine? How about when Rashad Evans knocked out Chuck Liddell? I use these instances to make you think for a second. All three are simply knockouts where someone made a mistake and got caught.

As for Tim Silvia, come on. Tim Silvia sucks. He has no ground game, and has been made to look like a fool by the best in the business. Nobody would put him up against Lesnar, Couture, Nog, or Mir and give him odds on favoritism without being asked if they're mentally handicapped. He's not one of the all time greats. He's not even good. He's tall, and sort of strong. That's it. Fedor knew that, and you should too.

Now, you're probably asking yourself, "Why does this guy hate Fedor?" I don't. I like Fedor. I think he's got the clearest head and calmest demeanor of any fighter in the world, and every short fight victory he's had has been because of those abilities above and beyond even his immense skills in Sambo and Judo. This is a guy who I look up to because of how great of a sportsman he is, and how he's such a great credit to his country, like fighters like Henderson is to America, and Nog is to Brazil.

However, as a fan of Fedor, I know for a fact that he's won some great fights, but he's still got to fight the best. I want him to fight in the UFC because I know that if he wins fights there, then there's no disputing him anymore, and that means there are no more questions to ask. My biggest problem is the legend is probably bigger than the man. People on the net say he could beat Lesnar with no problems, among other things, yet Heath Herring went 10 minutes with him, and he couldn't finish Nog no matter what he did. Though he dominated Mirko Cro Cop, he couldn't finish him either, which is something that Gonzaga did with no problems. Why couldn't he finish Renato Sobral, who Chuck Liddell has destroyed?

So, I say to Fedor, come to the UFC and fight. Affliction can't offer you anything you haven't seen before, and neither can Dream or Strikeforce. Fedor's managers need to get their hammer and sickle out of their asses and let Fedor fight in America under a brand that matters.

To finish the blog, I have two things to say.
1. Dan Henderson makes me proud to be an American.
2. GSP wouldn't trade with Alves because he was scared. Plain and simple. Quit laying on people.