"Fedor has nothing left to prove"
It's a statement as odd as it is misguided. For one, it ignores the principle of what it means to be the champ. Being the champ isn't just about the belt that symbolizes your position at the top: it's also about the signals it sends to each challenger who would enthusiastically dare to take it from you. Right now GSP is the champ in a division he's essentially cleaned out. But people rightfully give him props for not just putting an inedible stamp on the division, but for maintaining it. Some people don't like it, and would prefer to see him at MW, but regardless, there's something to be said for excellence. For achievement sustained, rather than temporarily attained.
This doesn't apply to Fedor directly, but there are indirect implications.
Between 2003, from when Fedor captured the Pride HW belt, up to 2005, when Fedor beat Mirko in their epic fight, Fedor was the greatest HW up until that point. This is beyond dispute. But everything past that gets somewhat murkier:
Win Brett Rogers TKO (Punches) Strikeforce / M-1 Global - Fedor vs. Rogers 11/7/2009 2 1:48 Win Andrei Arlovski KO (Punch) Affliction - Day of Reckoning 1/24/2009 1 3:14 Win Tim Sylvia Submission (Rear-Naked Choke) Affliction - Banned 7/19/2008 1 0:36 Win Hong Man Choi Submission (Armbar) Yarennoka - New Years Eve 2007 12/31/2007 1 1:54 Win Matt Lindland Submission (Armbar) Bodog Fight - Clash of the Nations 4/14/2007 1 2:58 Win Mark Hunt Submission (Kimura) PRIDE - Shockwave 2006 12/31/2006 1 8:16 Win Mark Coleman Submission (Armbar) PRIDE 32 - The Real Deal 10/21/2006 2 1:15 Win Wagner da Conceicao Martins Submission (Punches) PRIDE - Shockwave 2005 12/31/2005 1 0:26
I don't think it's valid to say I'm being hyper-critical when I call this resume up to present day, somewhat questionable. Let's ignore what's behind the numbers and names for a second. Zulu didn't belong in the ring with Fedor, period. Neither did Colemen in the rematch nobody asked for. In fact, neither did Hunt (who had just lost to Barnett), Lindland (not a HW), or Choi (also not a HW, technically speaking). Imagine GSP beating Hughes in the rematch, and then fighting Carlos Newton, Chris Leben, and then Houston Alexander, and that's pretty much what you'd get for a WW equivalent. There are two traditional counter arguments to this criticism, a) that this was just Pride being Pride, and b) that there was no one else at the time. The first counter argument is, to be blunt, just stupid. The fact that Pride had an aversion to number one contender matches for their champs (one among many reasons why Pride's death is a wound that quickly healed for me) is no excuse, nor is "cultural relevance", whatever the hell that means. Just because Japan "loves freakshows" shouldn't be reason enough to see Fedor fight someone not worth his time, or even the time of a jobber like Butterbean in Zulu's case.
The second counter argument is true in some cases, but it dismisses two fighters who were very much in their primes while Fedor was crushing the odd can: Sergei Kharitonov, and of course, Josh Barnett. Kharitonov might be a punchline these days (although Overeem might disagree), but back then, he was considered a potential, if not outright contender. If you saw his close but epic fight with Nog live, it was never more clear than in that fight, where he displayed a well roundedness unheard of for a HW in that time period: crisp boxing, a solid ground game, and a rugged gameness that I think would have made him a good fight for Fedor. A matchup with Josh Barnett goes without saying, and I'll waste my time and respond to the fanboy defense that "but Barnett lost to Mirko and Nog" by saying that a) he also beat Nog and b) this is hardly valid for any type of champ, let alone someone considered a P4P king. Fitch beat Alves before GSP fought the latter, but this didn't make Alves less of a contender, who made a better go of it than Fitch did. I hate cliches, but styles make fights, and Barnett, with his adequate standup, and a grappling game that wasn't chiseled by Hammer House would have also made for an interesting matchup.
Fedor's last three fights were certainly a step up, but even we if we ignore criticism in retrospect (like how Nog has done in the UFC, how Sylvia was liquified by Ray Mercer, and how Rogers was absolutely tooled by Overeem), Sylvia was 1-2 going into his fight with Fedor, and Arlovski, while on a nice win streak, still had the back to back Sylvia losses (Rogers is still green enough that much can't be said one way or the other). They're good wins, but they're not the definitive achievements of Fedor's P4P contemporaries. While the P4P debate is an argument for another day, compare that resume to GSP's last seven fights: Hardy, Alves, Penn, Fitch, Serra, Hughes, Koscheck. Or Anderson, who has fought nothing but contender fights since his reign as champ, and who has seen success in 3 different weight classes, and could add another when all is said and done. Do these guys have something to prove? Not by Fedor fanboy logic. But that's untrue, of course.
Werdum is a solid HW, but not a number one contender except by Strikeforce standards. Overeem is clearly talented, but there's little we know about him in the way of whether or not he's cleaned up his deficiencies: like his tendency to gas, or take a punch when the going gets tough. The fact is, the UFC has the bulk of the world's HW talent, so if we were to change the question to "does Fedor have something to prove against today's HW elite?" then yes, Fedor would have something to prove, as any great top fighter does, night in, night out.
This isn't to attack Fedor's legacy. He was the best HW Pride ever had, and they had a great stable of fighters. But this is to attack the notion that Fedor's current history is somehow beyond reproach. MMA observers have this weird desire to stick achievements on things like it's a game of monopoly. "Hey quick! Put him on the P4P list so can he defend his title twice and then go down in the history books as the greatest FW eva!!" Kid Nate's piece on BE's front page is one among way too many examples of MMA journalists/bloggers who want to contextualize history like it's got an egg timer. Fedor won't be the greatest fighter ever in MMA if he beats Overeem and Werdum, and to be honest, it's ridiculous to even label ANY fighter as such at this point in time (he would, however, be the greatest HW up to this point, which goes without saying). MMA's history is simply too short. Andrei Arlovski is 31, yet he's thought of as an MMA relic. Miguel Torres is 27, who only a year ago was considered a P4P contender, yet whose game is already considered somewhat outmoded. Let history take its course people.
