Fedor in a lose/lose situation
by NCSAR on Oct 12, 2009 1:31 PM EDT
Email
PrintFedor's last 4 opponents may have had (for the most part) big names, but none of them were in their primes. On Nov 7th Fedor could be stepping up to the biggest challenge he has seen in a very long time!
Here are some parts of an interesting piece that can be found here at this link!
I like Fedor personally, and feel he is the G.O.A.T, but as he ages it is only a matter of time before someone finally figures out the right combination to defeat him. Would anyone really be shocked if he stepped away after this fight?
The name Fedor Emelianenko is synonymous with greatness in the world of MMA yet casual fans here in the US virtually have no idea who this man is.
Much of that can be attributed to the fact that only three of Fedor’s thirty-three professional fights have taken place on US soil. Fedor has spent the majority of his career fighting for international organizations, many of which no longer exist.
Come November Fedor will be standing across from a 6’5”, 265 pound beast. A beast with devastating knockout power and the hunger for greatness that many believe Fedor lacks. Rogers is currently 10-0 with all of his wins coming by way of stoppage.
What Rogers will be giving up in skill and experience he will be making up for with his physical gifts and grit. Rogers may not be as refined as Fedor but his raw talent and punching power are off the charts which make him a dangerous opponent for anyone.
Fedor is currently finding himself in a no win situation. If he wins he has done nothing more than defeat an unproven and under matched competitor. If he loses the shockwaves will be felt throughout the MMA community. No longer would he have the mystique of excellence and his US marketability would be crushed.
Fedor has nothing to gain from this matchup and it is sad to say that win or lose Fedor’s future in mainstream MMA is bleak.
The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Bloody Elbow readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bloody Elbow editors or staff.
40 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
The internet would swallow it’s own head if Fedor loses.
Keep firing Assholes!
It doesn't take rocket appliances to figure this out.
I agree with that except for saying Fedor’s future in mainstream is bleak, it’s hard to tell at this point if he will catch on mainstream or not over the long run.
This fight with Rogers is a dangerous one for him, he really should destroy Rogers within a couple of minutes but if Rogers catches him he has the power to drop Fedor cold. A punchers chance can carry you pretty far when you hit like Rogers does, still I think everyone expects Fedor to wrap the guy up, tap him out and send him home in very short order.
I disagree with the lose-lose situation notion. If he wins, real fans know that he faced someone with more KO power than anyone he has ever faced. Fedor is more likely than ever to get caught and go to sleep. I feel it is a big accomplishment if he wins.
After this fight, I think the only situation that Fedor hasn’t faced is going to be Lesnar. Fedor hasn’t faced anyone who is both huge and muscular, that will also try and take him down and TKO a win. Lesnar might have the ability because, even though he may not be very technical yet, he can make up for with pure strength. Lesnar is a unique opponent to Fedor. I want to see Fedor pass every test an MMA fighter can go through.
Fedor fought Cro Cop in his prime, Mark Hunt and Semmy Schilt; not to mention that both Tim Silvia and Andre Arlovski are known for their striking ability. It’s not like Fedor has never fought anyone with huge knock out power because he has. Rogers has big time size and punching power but it’s not anything that Fedor hasn’t faced before, heck Fedor normally eats guys with lacking ground games up not to mention that Fedor also has been shown to have real KO power himself. He is light years beyond where Brett Rogers currently stands.
It could if Fedor isn’t ready for it but it would probably be a bigger issue if he was fighting someone like Werdum than someone known for just going out and standing toe to toe slugging it out. I doubt Rogers style really uses the cage to his advantage (as opposed to Cro Cop whose style was really more suited for a ring where he could corner people than an octagon where they can just keep circling).
I would disagree. I personally think that once his Strikeforce contract is up he will try and head to the UFC all over again. Getting cage experience is essential. I think Fedor is taking lesson from CroCop’s mistakes.
Bob Arum thinks I'm a white Nazi skinhead even though I'm a brown grad student (with hair)
Only thing is, Fedor isn’t getting any younger.
"You guys are jerking eachother off with some pseudo deep bullshit." - Kid Nate
by Kaleb Kelchner on Oct 12, 2009 2:31 PM EDT up reply actions
3 fights...
and 3 legit opponents in Strikeforce. Werdum is the current ADCC champ and beating him would give Fedor a win over the best HW grappler in the world. If the fight with Overeem ever does he would have a victory over arguably the best striker in MMA given Overeem’s recent K1 endeavours. Does that sound like lose-lose?
Bob Arum thinks I'm a white Nazi skinhead even though I'm a brown grad student (with hair)
Werdum couldn’t sell Kleenex at a funeral and Overeem isn’t much behind him in that regard. Both are high ranked guys but they both have even less drawing power than Fedor does. The mainstream really doesn’t know or care about Overeem or Werdum, heck even after being in the UFC for a couple years Werdum still is basically unknown to the casual fans, his two fights that got the most casual fan attention were the horrible fight with AA and Dos Santos laying him out. FIghting Kimbo at a backyard barbecue would do more for Fedor’s mainstream appeal than fighting Werdum and Overeem on network tv would.
Well you’re a casual mainstream fan then -
a. This is the wrong place for you
b. You missed my point completely
What I’m saying is that Fedor will be facing legitimate approximately top 10 heavyweights, in a cage (given he has no prior cage experience), who are respectively the best HW grappler and striker in MMA.
Bob Arum thinks I'm a white Nazi skinhead even though I'm a brown grad student (with hair)
Does that sound like lose-lose?
Everyone here knows what Fedor can do and we will be watching if Strikeforce was pushing Fedor vs Zulu 2, with the hardcore fans it’s not a lose/lose situation because as long as he is winning everyone will be watching but then hardcore fans like us here are very much a minority when it comes to MMA’s fanbase and careers in the mainstream are build on appealing to the casual fan. So to answer the question you ended with, yes this very well could be a lose/lose situation for Fedor in a lot of ways, a hell of a lot more goes into this than that (and we don’t even know if Werdum and Overeem will be his next two fights or not at this point). It shouldn’t be forgotten that professional sports are primarily about making money, these guys are fighting to get paid and future paychecks not only rely on winning they rely on drawing in the fans.
by who me on Oct 12, 2009 7:29 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
If he wins it's a very good win
Why nothing to gain out of winning ? He gets to maintain his status as number 1 heavyweight in the world that translates to money and fame (think of the huge UFC offers he got). It’s a definitely and literally a win-lose situation …he better win !
Not in their primes?
Sylvia had just come off 2 losses, sure, but he was still considered top 5/10 @ HW, and was giving Nog a beating before getting subbed.
Arlovski was considered top 3, and had come off wins over guys like Werdum, Rothwell, Nelson, etc.
Lindland (who is about the same size as Fedor, weighed in @ 218) was considered a marquee MW and they only put that together because the Monson fight fell through.
HMC was a giant kickboxer who (at the time) had only lost to Bonjasky & JLB (pretty much the best K-1 has to offer), and had avenged his only other loss to Mighty Mo. Freak show/ squash match for sure, but Fedor finished him.
The thing is, all these fighters have taken a turn for the worse after fighting Fedor. It’s like he was able to so comprehensively and devastatingly beat them that they still haven’t recovered. And THAT is what makes him so damn scary.
Supporting all Las Vegas MMA. Xtreme Couture FTMFW.
'09 is the year of the FW's.
I definitely agree . You should judge this according to the fighter’s status the evening of the fight , not two or three years later. I am not going to discredit Brock Lesnar’s win over Couture just because Nogueira beat Couture up . Day of the fight Randy was the UFC champion and considered one of the best , that’s all that matters.
Day of fight Andrei was ranked 2 , Sylvia top 5 and now Rogers is 8. I am not going to care if Rogers gets knocked out in his next fight , I am going to remember that he was 10-0 all knockouts day of the Fedor fight.
As for the Matt Lindland fight …not the best opponent Fedor faced but you know what he did better than Sylvia and possibly better than Andrei…
I'm just saying
Lindland and HMC were viable matchups at the time. Best comp for the #1 HW? Probably not. But given his situation, it was the best available.
Supporting all Las Vegas MMA. Xtreme Couture FTMFW.
'09 is the year of the FW's.
by ElliotMatheny on Oct 13, 2009 3:18 AM EDT up reply actions
fedor is always in a no win situation, so is brock. the minute either loses, they will be trounced by their detractors and not given much credit for their victories. i kinda think anderson silva and gsp are at the same point. they can’t afford to lose to anybody(except each other), and will not get much credit for whomever they beat from here on out, thery’re on such a high pedestal. the only win/win situation for fedor and brock where to be if they fought each other. silva would probably have to fight and beat machida and gsp would have to fight and beat silva. bj too. :)
by bdw on Oct 12, 2009 5:03 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
I dont see how him winning is considered a lost. At worst it would be considered a draw really. He is where he stands right now. Except he makes somewhere around a million dollars. Oh and gets exposed on CBS which would lead to bigger pay days down the road. Not quite sure how that chalks up to a loss.
If he wins but the CBS ratings aren’t good it’s a huge loss for his career. It’s not guaranteed that he will get good exposure or that people will actually tune in just because CBS is involved.
I guarantee a lot more people will randomly stumble upon him and find it interesting than the number that would if it were on showtime. Plus he gets the benefits of a CBS marketing scheme that should focus solely on building him up. I know we are still yet to see that marketing machine get started but it has to be coming.
LOL
We’re already less than 30 days out from the CBS event..
What marketing have you seen for this card or this fight for that matter ?? I have watched CBS football and seen nothing.. absolutely nothing…
This isn’t proper marketing in the least. Usually you start 3-6 months out and ramp it up from there. Then the last 30 days you make the real big push… We’re now less than 30 days out and still nothing..
8-29-09
Keith Jardine is now known as "The Dean of Antihistamine" because he is always sleeping early in fights..
Being better than on Showtime is a given, being better than the huge push he would of got if he signed with the UFC should be the measuring stick for this though. In theory network tv should be better but honestly I have yet to see anything out of CBS and we already know that these shows being successes isn’t a given (just look at the non-Kimbo CBS event). Heck for that matter even the good CBS ratings we all rave about being the best ever for MMA weren’t as good as we make them out to be, reruns of CSI regularly trash the best ratings MMA has ever done in the US. CBS helped two fighters, Gina and Kimbo and both of them were already decent stars in their own right before they were on CBS (Gina more than Kimbo). Fedor has yet to prove he can actually draw worth what he cost in the US in any medium, these rating will be very important to him (well to M-1 at least I get the feeling Fedor doesn’t care about things like that).
The only thing i was trying to argue was that it wasnt a loss if he won. He should still raise his profile regardless of to what extent and make boat loads of cash without damaging his reputation in any way.
I dont see how the arguement that he is hurt by the fact that they dont draw ratings. Most people already believe that he cant be a draw in the United States. How does him not drawing ratings hurt him? He is exactly where he starts. Therefore its not a loss.
Of course Fedor prefers to win I don’t understand what there is to argue about here!
Why win ? For Russia , for pride , to remain number one in rankings , to sell more merchandise , who cares? Fedor wants to win here , period . People think they understand better than he does what he has to win or lose here …
If he draws terribly it will hurt him when it comes to future bargaining.
If the show bombs, there may not be another CBS card, which will greatly impact what he can earn on his future Strikeforce cards. It also gives Zuffa less reason (like it needs any) to concede any further to m1’s offers.
It’s not a total loss as some people will make it out to be regardless of the result, but there are a few ways that a bad showing (either in the ring or in ratings) can hurt his ability to earn in the near future.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
MMA Rankings
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
