You’re right on with Couture.

As I watched Fedor destroy Sylvia, I was thinking to myself, it took Couture 5 rounds. There is no way he is gonna take Fedor out.

I hope Couture’s “promoting” of his fight with Fedor does not add to the delay of the fight taking place via UFC’s lawsuit that is being held up in court.

Added a poll. =)

Thanks Nick :)

I’m going to take the easy way out and say…both.

It is a superfight, because it matches the 2 biggest name heavyweights in the world and is a fight people have been clamoring for, for quite a while.

It is also a mismatch, because Fedor is a far more complete fighter than randy.

Randy may be the most over rated fighter around. Don’t get me wrong, i am a fan and I think he may be the most cerebral fighter in mma. He certainly is great and a hall of famer, but he is not a great striker, submission artist or boxer. he obviously has great wrestling and uses his brain to make good game plans and follow them. But outside of wrestling, I don’t think he has anything on Fedor and if they fight in a ring, it will be a distinct disadvantage for Randy.

Are they necessarily mutually exclusive? There’s no dispute that Couture and Fedor are both legends in the sport. If you match them up, isn’t that a super-fight inasmuch as they are both legends? Couture walked away from the UFC relatively recently as the HW champion. Fedor is Fedor. It’s not like we’re talking about a washed up legend who has lost a number of fights in a row against an up and coming legend. It’s two legends—it’s a superfight.

At the same time, I can’t imagine that Fedor would have much difficulty in handling Randy. I think the fight itself would end up being a mismatch.

EDIT ON PREVIEW: Or, yeah, some of what BJJD said.

My vote was mismatch (and it hurt me to do so), but age is a huge factor here. A lot of what makes Randy so effective even at an age when most fighters had retired a decade prior, he is able to use all of the knowledge he has gained to his advantage over less skilled opponents. The problem is that I don’t see his experience as an edge against Fedor, in fact I think Fedor is probably the more experienced fighter and in his prime (and despite Randy’s amazing conditioning he is clearly not in his physical prime).

Don’t get me wrong, I’d defeinitely buy whatever pay-per-view the fight was on and root hard for Randy, but I’d be rooting for a pretty big underdog (Im guessing Fedor wins that fight 85-90% of the time).

A super fight to me is a fight that’s competitive between two legends or well known fighter’s.

lol@ brent…no worries man…the intent of the article was to get some discussion going…nothing more nothing less…

So does anyone here think that A. Silva’s fight against J. Irvin was a mismatch?

This article stinks. Couture is very solidly ranked as the #3 heavyweight in the world, #2 being a guy Fedor’s already beaten twice. Fightmatrix only has Nogueira leading Couture by one point.

Randy is coming off of two (not sure why you think it’s just one) dominating consecutive wins against top 10 heavyweights, which is more than can be said for anyone else in the sport besides Nogueira.

Of course he’s the best possible opponent for Fedor at this time. Better now than later.

Realistically this is more marketing then a fight. If Affliction can get Randy to fight Fedor in their ring it will provide big PPV buys. Plus the added benifit of Fedor destroying a UFC hall of famer, will just solidify Affiction’s claim of being the ‘New Future’ of the sport. I agree completely with the section here stating Randy doesn’t even deserve the honor. There are far more deserveing HW’s who would also be a bigger challenge for the Champ. Now I do want to see the fight, if just to shut Couture and his lil Kim up already. Couture has never been a dominate champion of either weight class and his record reflects just such a lack of dominace. How he retires after losing 4 of 8 fights to come back and win two, and be considered best in the world is just too much for me to wrap my head around. (Then doesn’t even honor his contract..Don’t hear Fedor crying & refusing to fight till he fights Randy) I don’t think Randy can beat Anderson Silva myself.

I understand they had different gameplans. Yet both of them dropped Tim right away and took his back. Randy stalled out and did nothing while Fedor capitalized and closed the show. That difference is the difference between the two and will glare obvious if/when the two collide.

We all want to see it so I think that it is a superfight. Fedor has more skills and is more well-rounded, but Randy is great. His losses do not negate some of his great performances even before he beat Sylvia. The fact that it will have the biggest PPV ever makes it a superfight. These are my two favourite fighters so I am sad that Randy will probably lose. JMO

It will draw the money, but the fight itself won’t be anything special, it will be Fedor knocking Couture out in one minute.

How do we even entertain Randy and all his crying after he turned down the chance to fight Fedor for 3 million dollars???

How do people keep Tim ranked ahead of Andrei? I know about their 3 fights but still, just because you beat someone doesn’t lock you into a higher ranked position forever. Bottom line is Tim has dropped 3 out of his last four fights. Arlovski has won all four of his last four. Seems to me rankings need to be reconsidered across the board.

And Couture knows it. You can see it in his eyes. After witnessing that destruction in person, he wants no part of Fedor.

Fedor, Nogueira, Barnett, Werdum, and Randy. That’s your top five in order.

All this talk about wins over top 10 heavyweights seems to ignore the fact that Fedor isn’t exactly a true heavyweight – he’s an inch shorter and maybe a pound heavier than Randy, and could make 205 just as easily. And pretending that heavyweights are necessarily harder to beat than LHW fighters seems a little simplistic. I’d love to see Fedor vs. Chuck or Fedor vs. Machida. Wouldn’t everyone?

(Okay, I admit it: that second fight is just to see Machida get his face broken open.)

DAMN@ the poll having over 400 votes.

and risk his record, he would have been able to fight on Affliction right now. But he knew that Nogueira was a bad match up for him and would ruin the potential windfall payday from Affliction if he lost the belt. Randy is a coward.

By the time he’s released from his legal troubles, Affliction would be no more. Good job, Randy!

We should have more polls, that thing looks awesome.

If Randy would have just manned up and fought his last two fights we wouldn’t have to argue this moot point. We would know where he stood against Big Nog or Werdum or Arlovski and he would be free to fight whomever he choose. As it was he broke his contract and spit on Big Nog basically saying he doesn’t deserve to fight for the real championship belt. I wish some bad roots on Couture.

He didn’t beat Barnett, he hasn’t beat Arlovski, he hasn’t beat Werdum, he hasn’t beat Big Nog, heck he hasn’t even beat CroCop or Antonio Silva. That’s at least five in the top ten he’s never fought. Yeah that Couture is a world class dominate champ.

However, you can’t jump from #4 to #1…not in Couture’s case anyways.

So where does Tim Sylvia stand now that he has fought Fedor? Would he rank above Nog and Couture since he did compete against the #1 HW?

He can’t be above Couture..since he’s lost 3 outta 4…and Couture was one of those losses.

1. Fedor Emelianenko
Not 1. Everybody else

If somebody beats Fedor it becomes:
1. Guy who beat Fedor
2. Fedor
Not 1 or 2. Everybody else

This discussion is pretty much dead…maybe we should have a discussion on what criteria goes into legitimate rankings?

We will be watching Randy Vs. Fedor on a UFC PPV within 6 months. Randy is under contract, Fedor is not. Fedor just wants $$. At this point Dana should be willing to put it up. Especially after letting Affliction incur the loss of bringing a relatively unknown Fedor to the US and letting him wipe his ass with the Maineiac. Dana is much smarter than most give him credit for.

I want to know if Dana still thinks Couture would smash Fedor.

In a ring, Randy has about a 3% chance of winning. That’s if he cuts Fedor early.

In a cage, Randy has about a 10% chance of winning. That’s if he cuts Fedor early and uses the clinch against the cage.

Randy has nothing for Fedor really.

The poll has spoken….it’s a mis-match :)

I don’t know why people aren’t recommending this post to the moon, BTW.

I suppose because you moved it to the frontpage earlier this week?

True indeed that PRIDE fighters haven’t faired well in the cage…but the facts are that Shogun was rated as the #1 LHW in the world by most back in 2006…

Yea, Couture fight quality competition at LHW…but that’s not what I’m speaking on here…you can’t justify his ranking as a HW just because he fought quality competition at LHW.

Fedor bested Nog in 2004…sure that was 4 years ago…and I agree the quality of competition he faced was asswipes(as I initially indicated)...however, his dismantling of Tim Syliva solidified that his #1 ranking was well deserved regardless.

In regards to betting against him…you have to remember that he hasn’t fought in almost a year right now…is a year older physically…and if this fight even occurs…it will have been at least a year and a half since he last fought…and he’ll be that much older…

but the facts are that Shogun was rated as the #1 LHW in the world by most back in 2006…

How can you make a statement like this and then refuse to merit any argument that Gonzaga was (and still is) rated as a top ten heavyweight by most?

Because unlike Gonzaga who has one credible win in his entire career…Shogun at the time demolished everyone he had faced(except Babalu)...Rampage, Arona, Overeem(2X), Antonio Rogerio Nogueira…all of those guys are were upper tier fighters at the time.

That’s how.

I love how this thing is still going.

They are going for the record…whatever that is…lol