Four Questions Regarding Fedor’s Career

If you can pardon my brief period of silence following last week’s Strikeforce event, I think we can all agree that Fedor Emelianenko’s loss to Antonio Silva gave us quite a bit to think about. At this point, there are a lot of questions about all aspects of Fedor’s career that are going around, and I’m going to address what I believe to be the four most important.

Will this loss make Fedor even less likely to get the respect he deserves?

Call it the influence of Dana White or the UFC-centric views of casual MMA fans, or even blame the reluctance of Fedor’s management to play ball with the UFC itself, but Fedor Emelianenko has not received the respect that he surely deserves at this point in his career. Now, White is usually careful to criticize Fedor’s recent history as a fighter and not the entirety of his career, but many impressionable fans who weren’t following the sport during the Pride Fighting Championships days may not take it that way.

Furthermore, to these fans a couple of consecutive losses in Strikeforce is a huge disaster. These are the folks who reduce Fabricio Werdum to “a guy who couldn’t cut it in the UFC”, after all. Suffice to say that anyone who has actually observed Fedor for any length of time gives him his due as one of the best fighters ever no matter what, but what about the mainstream fans who are always coming into the sport? Sure, hardcore fans will always stick up for Fedor, but the intensity of the debate and the way that Fedor’s apologists address so-called “noobs” may undermine the effort to make newer fans understand Fedor’s spot in history.

Why is the subject of Fedor so divisive among fans?

Now, I’m certainly not putting Fedor fans on a pedestal, here. Right after the loss to Silva, there were fans that were nutty enough to say things like “that wasn’t really a loss, since the doctor stopped it”. (Okay, you can get away with that on the Tsuyoshi Kohsaka loss via cut, but in this case, Fedor was pounded into the mat for several minutes, so it’s a bit different)

The fact is that like any other major debate (religion, political issues, Coke vs. Pepsi) there are some nutjobs on both sides. They fuel one another. UFC loyalists (what a silly concept, by the way) refuse to give Fedor one iota of respect because he’s never fought there. How could the best MMA heavyweight of all time have never fought in the Octagon, right? Bitter Pride fans use Fedor as their figurehead; the one Pride superstar (besides Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, but Shogun wasn’t as big as Fedor in Pride) that is an elite fighter in the North American MMA scene. The fact that Fedor and White don’t see eye to eye just makes both sides hate Fedor and love him more, respectively.

These two sides fuel one another, and their respective arguments simply become more ridiculous as each side refuses to give even an inch to the other. You’ll see this with just about anything that is popular, honestly. At this point, the Fedor arguments that you’ll find on MMA forums aren’t even usually about Fedor. They’re about some stupid UFC vs. Pride nonsense, or even just pro-UFC vs. anti-UFC crap. It’s hard to say which is more insipid.

Is Fedor done?

Let’s talk about the in-cage aspect of things. After all, that’s supposed to be what matters, right? Is Fedor Emelianenko really done?

Well, in literal terms, we don’t know. Fedor will make that decision, and when a guy as stoic and even-tempered as Fedor even mentions retirement, it’s hard not to take him seriously. I don’t think he’s the type of person that simply says he’s going to do things, then changes his mind.

Let’s say he continues competing, though. Can he ascend to the top of the division again? The way I see it, he could get very close, at least. Sure, Werdum tapped him and Silva thumped him pretty good, but you’ll have a hard time convincing me that he could never beat either man. Still, even though some of the bad habits he’s gotten into over the years have become a bit more glaring (such as exchanging with his hands down and absorbing punches needlessly), he has aged well and could still put a nice run together if he has the motivation to.

The biggest obstacle may not just be the competition, but the fact that at this point, taking the top spot in the division in the eyes of most fans and media without fighting in the UFC would be hard to do. He’d have to avenge his losses and probably defeat at least a couple of other top Strikeforce heavyweights, as well. Also, at his current pace, he won’t have enough time to win several fights in a row before his skills really decline.

In no way is he done as a relevant heavyweight, though. To say otherwise is silly.

What will Fedor’s legacy be?

First of all, there’s a 0% chance of Fedor not being remembered as a major part of MMA history. He was the dominant competitor in Pride, which was a major part of MMA for years as an organization. He remains the only heavyweight fighter besides perhaps Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira to have a sustained period of dominance of any real length. He was the number one fighter in his division for years, and is currently the default top heavyweight of all time.

I’ve always thought that it’s just plain dumb to think that a bad streak near the end of an athlete’s career somehow negates what happened when they were at their peak. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the results of Fedor’s previous fights didn’t spontaneously change to losses from wins when the doctor stopped the fight against Silva, right?

It will be interesting to see how perceptions of Fedor change, though. A look back at Fedor’s fights may easily help future fans form some revisionist history. It’s only natural for sports fans to assume that one generation’s athletes are better than those that preceded it, and so on. Will fans thirty years from now look back at Fedor and see him as a rather unspectacular athlete who had a good run, or as the dominant force he truly was? Will his quiet demeanor and unassuming lifestyle hurt his long-term popularity among fans, or will it add to the legend?

Well, maybe it’s too soon to decide about all of this, anyway. After all, the man himself hasn’t even decided whether he’s done fighting or not, right? There may be a few pages to be added before the book is closed, after all.

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Tags: Antonio Silva, Dana White, Fabricio Werdum, Fedor Emelianenko, Strikeforce, UFC