Frankie Edgar = Fe = Fedor Emelianenko

In MMA as in other sports, history sometimes repeats itself or at least recalls itself.  Watching UFC 118's main event last night of Frankie Edgar vs. BJ Penn, I was struck by how unconcerned Edgar was to wade right into BJ's guard time and again in order to impose damage from there.  The conventional wisdom in the UFC has been that as good as BJ is on the feet, you don't want any part of his ground game.  But Frankie waded in unafraid at every opportunity, following takedowns and knockdowns, content to hang out in BJ's guard and win the fight in every arena.  In doing so, he brought to my mind another great fighter who shares the "Fe" initials on Edgar's trunks: Fedor Emelianenko. I began to divine a broader similarity.

Heresy, some would say.  Fedor is in most fans' minds the greatest fighter in the history of the sport.  Comparing another guy - ANY other guy - to Fedor is as blasphemous as comparing Kobe or LeBron to Michael.  But while the analogy is never perfect, and history never perfectly repeats, I see in Frankie something I didn't expect to see - didn't even consider - until last night.  I see echoes of Fedor.

When Fedor faced Antonio Rodgrigo Nogueira for the first time at PRIDE 25, "Big Nog" was widely considered the best heavyweight in the world. He had won 13 in a row over multiple top contenders.  He was very dangerous; the book on him was:  however good his boxing skills, whatever you do, don't go to ground with him.  Emelianenko meanwhile was still a relative unknown, having fought only twice in PRIDE - a workmanlike decision of Semmy Schilt and a stoppage of Heath Herring.  Most everyone expected Nogueira to win and retain his title.  We all know, of course, what happened. But the big surprise to everyone watching was how unconcerned Emelianenko was to hang out in Big Nog's guard and inflict damage, seemingly unconcerned about the list of submission scalps on Nogueira's resume.

Frankie Edgar's resounding victory last night over BJ Penn was also an echo of Fedor's arrival into mainstream fans' awareness.  Sure, Edgar had beaten Penn at UFC 112, but the fight was extremely close, and the sentiment of most longtime fans - those who didn't think Penn actually won their first fight outright - was that Edgar's decision victory at UFC 112 was, if not a fluke, then an aberration - one that would be set straight in the rematch when the "real" BJ Penn showed up.

But the world changed last night, and Frankie Edgar officially arrived. He dominated Penn in every location the fight went for 25 solid minutes - outstriking him, outwrestling him, outmaneuvering him, and the final insult, showing no particular concern about staying on the ground with the man rightly nicknamed "the Prodigy" for his freakish grappling prowess.  Those fans who expected a drubbing when the "real" BJ showed up - I'll admit to being among them - thought that if BJ could engage Edgar on the mat he would submit him quickly. Clearly Frankie didn't get the memo, however.  Watching him staying happily in Penn's guard put me in mind of Fedor wailing away at Nogueira from the guard at PRIDE 25.

The parallels extend beyond the fight.  In interviews and pressers, Edgar is uncannily like Fedor; I daresay if he spoke Russian, or Fedor English, their mannerisms would be similar.  Frankie is very stoic, quiet and thoughtful in his comments, un-flashy and on point.  He's respectful of the competition but disarmingly confident in his own abilities and pays no particular credit to what others say about his limitations.

Again, the analogy is never perfect and history never exactly repeats.  Edgar wins via decision more than you'd like out of someone who's being mentioned in the same sentence as Fedor.  But Edgar, with all of 14 fights under his belt, actually has only a few more decisions than Fedor had in his first 14 fights, arguably against roughly equivalent competition. As Edgar's skill set grows, apace with his confidence, he could begin to finish opponents more. 

Edgar does have a legitimate loss on his record, which Fedor did not share until recently.  Even here, however, we fans are afforded the opportunity to see if the analogy can continue:  just as Fedor took the opportunity at Bushido 6 to demolish the only man to "beat" him to that point, Frankie's next challenger is the only man to defeat him to date - Gray Maynard.  Stylistically it's a tough match for Edgar. But watching his quiet confidence leading up to the Penn rematch, and watching him dominate Penn at every turn, shutting him out in a 5-round title affair in a match BJ Penn wanted very badly to win, I'm not going to count Edgar out any more.

Is Edgar as great as Fedor Emelianenko, is he as well rounded, is he in the discussion right now for greatest fighter of all time?  Far too early in his career to speak in those terms. The answer to all three has to be no. What I saw last night that was worth sharing wasn't that Edgar is as great as Fedor, only that there are parallels in the rise of the two fighters and that the surprise most of us still feel today at the dominance he showed at UFC 118 could be a harbinger of much greater acclaim in the future.