One does wonder, if the key Fedor’s success is that he has gotten his head straight on a level unachieved by any of his opponents. He’s certainly not strong on a superhuman level and I remain unconvinced about him being techically that much more superior to some of his opponents… perhaps it’s all (or mostly) in the head.

Perhaps Fedor, for some reason, is able to shrug off everything and anything his opponents throw at him and stay single-mindedly focused on the task at hand – winning the fight. Case in point – Fedor vs Randleman. Being hit with a suplex like Randleman hit Fedor with, I think quite a few fighters – even those on a world class level – might have let the situation get to them, even just a little. Fedor kept fighting as if nothing had happened – and we all know the result.

MMA as we know it is still a sport in its early development. In other sports, many of the legendary superstars have been first and foremost students of the game who have – instinctively or through intent studying – understood their chosen game on a level most of their peers haven’t. Fedor Emelianenko’s greatness may be based on something like this – a (perhaps instinctive, perhaps developed) deep understanding of fighting and an uncanny ability to focus on the fight at hand, take everything as it comes, never get rattled and “stay on the ball” like no-one else.

Just a thought.

you could say his inability to handle the clinch against the fence very well was exposed. It’s clearly something with more clinch ability could take advantage of. Also, it seems like he’s lost a touch of his explosiveness on the ground. He’s still very dangerous, but he never seemed to have Rogers, a guy with presumably no ground game whatsoever, in any serious trouble in the place that used to be his domain. He’s become more of a striker over the past few years, and I think he’s lost just a bit of his incredible ground explosiveness.

Rogers clearly gassed in the first round. Everyone is saying how well Rogers did, but the guy gassed in the first round and was so gassed in the 2nd it directly led to his being knocked out. His hands were down, he was standing so close to fedor, he looked exhausted. The guy’s jab and reach could have won him the fight had he been able to throw them more often… but he didn’t have cardio (or the big stage and big lights took something out of him).

Fedor proved again his hands are explosive and accurate, and his mental acumen is top notch. I agree that he wasn’t “exposed”. His propagandists market him as invincible, and I think that is why you see a backlash.

I don’t know what Rogan really meant, but in a way he is right in that the myth of Fedor did get exposed, at least to all the casual fans that have been watching the lead up to this fight and probably hearing legendary stories from their more hardcore friends.

Frankly, what makes Fedor great, in my mind, its two things. 1. He is not the best at anything, but better than most at everything. Kind of like the guy who wins the Decathlon by getting 2nd or 3rd in every event instead of winning one or two and losing others badly. 2. Fedor fights in a very open style, he seems to try and fight when the fight is sloppy and open because that is where the best openings occur. I’ll be he practices this way too. His opponents seem to do well when the fight is tight and controlled, instead of open and wild.

Just my 2 cents.

So basically the fight I saw Saturday night was just Fedor being Fedor?

People keep billing him as the greatest fighter in MMA history and for the huge amount of casul fans that were exposed to him on Saturday, an Anderson Silva/Forrest Griffin-type domination was expected. Especially considering Rogers was considered a fringe Top-10 HW in most rankings (including BE), while Forrest was (and still is for the most part) a Top-5 LHW.

Instead they saw him damaged in a fairly close first round, then land one of his trademark wild looping right hands in the second. Maybe Rogers is underrated, but to casual fans, damage done goes a long way in their minds. When’s the last time we’ve seen Anderson with blood on his face?

Kudos, Luke.

Luke strikes again. You have to define the word exposed before you say that he was, or wasn’t exposed. The cage is a potential disadvantage for Fedor as a small heavyweight. A bigger heavyweight can corner him like Rogers did at times. So, yes Luke Thomas, a potential weakness of Fedor was exposed.

I did want to say one thing about the fight; I remember in the second round when Rogers had Fedor against the fence, just before the tko, and one of the announcers said that Rogers was a 6-1 dog and I thought: “That doesn’t seem right… 3-1 is more like it.” I guess during the fight it’s easier to tell, but after he made it out of the first I realized that a lot of us had underestimated him.

Therefor; There is no right or wrong answer..

Personally Fedor wasn’t exposed as much as a “weakness” of his was exposed…

That being the cage tactics.. I pointed this out on Sunday.. His inability and/or lack of knowledge on how to effectively fight for underhooks against the cage is a very real problem for him. Maybe he was just being patient, maybe he was hurt from the broken nose and needed a few minutes to get his wits about him.. ?? All these are hypothetical to say the least.. What we can evaluate is on what we’ve been given at this point. He’s had 1 fight in the cage and from a positioning standpoint, he would have been in trouble if Rogers had half the gas as someone of Lesnar or Coutures stature.. Fedor was “stuck” with his back against the cage and any good wrestler that can effectively pin him against the cage (whether it be clinch or ground) can legitimately use that tactic against Fedor at this point.. We need to see more fights inside the cage before be can make absolute’s..

Everything else is merely subjective to individual perception at best..

Agree or disagree with whether or not Fedor was exposed, but if Joe generally tells it like it is, why is he suddenly not telling it how it is in his opionion because the majority of one on-line community saw it differently?

People need to keep the word “exposed” in perspective. To me exposed is houston alexanders ground game when he gets fullmounted in a minute by thiago silva. Or petruzelli KO of Kimbo slice in a minute.

Fedor getting held to the cage by a guy who outweighs 40 lbs does not fall under the definition of exposed to me.. thats just something hell need to work on

It’s a very odd reaction from Rogan, because it sounds to me like he is either being a) a UFC company man, or b) a casual MMA fan that doesn’t understand Fedor and the way he fights.

I’ve never previously thought of him as either, but I’m sad to say that between this and his commentary during the Shogun/Machida fight his stock has gone down in my book somewhat.

He looked pretty exposed to me, he was controlled up against the cage a horrible position to be caught up against alot of UFC HW’s. He was on was getting caught with punches up agains the cage one of the worst positions to be in against a monster like Lesnar. And was swinging away like a mad man which leaves him open for counter punches by massive guys like a Carwin. Yeah he won and props to him but you really have to be hugging his nuts hard to not see that if Rogers was more than a 1 dimensional guy with no gas tank you’d probably be making excuses as to why he lost on Saturday.

WTF does “granular level” mean?? please stop making up terms, unless you’re going to define them. thanks