Fedor tapped out in the 1st round tonight to an armbar/triangle choke by Fabricio Werdum. He was on an unheard-of 28-fight win streak.
I said this was a dangerous (and dumb) fight for him to take. He gambled and lost. Had he been fighting top-5 ranked guys, it wouldn’t be such a hard fall, but he just got stopped in the first round by a guy who washed out of the UFC.
The hardest thing about the loss is that Fedor is a better fighter than Werdum. There is absolutely no doubt about that. But MMA is so complex and unpredictable that everyone gets caught eventually. Anderson Silva has been and probably will be caught again. GSP has been and probably will be caught again. It’s just a matter of time. But when you’re on top, you need to only fight other people who are on top, so when your number is up, you go out to a worthy adversary.
Fedor will fight again, but his legend died tonight.
I was trying to avoid the result of that fight, intending to watch the recording of the show with my brother later. Nice one for naming the winner in your thread title, Cisco.
Still, now I know, I may as well add my thoughts on the matter.
I’m shocked. Even more so knowing he got arm-barred. I thought someone would have to knock him unconscious to stop him, after seeing some of the wars he’s been in. As you mention, there is no real shame in taking a loss in MMA, as it happens to the best of them, and I hope this just creates an even meaner, more purposeful Fedor.
This was my reaction. I saw it live and though I always root for my fellow Brazillians I was sure Werdum didn’t stand a chance. I’ve seen fights in which Fedor got rocked by strikes before, but this guy fought Ricardo Arona and Minotauro (twice!) when they were both at their best and didn’t get submitted. I figured that if anyone were to have have a chance against him it’d be a striker.
I think this is a bit unfair. Firstly, Fabrício Werdum is a a two-time ADCC heavyweight winner and many people (I included) ranked him in the top 10 of heavyweights. He’s probably the most dangerous grappler on that weight category right now and his stand-up game gets better each fight. As to Fedor’s legendary status, that will never go away. The guy was arguably undefeated for 32 straight fights (nobody should count Kohsaka) and had some of the world’s greatest fighters on that record. His reign lasted for almost 10 years and I don’t think anybody else in mma can claim achieving so much. Does Ali lose something for not having retired earlier?
I’m only sorry that now the Overeem fight won’t happen and that the prospect of seeing Fedor facing the new guys from the ufc is farther than ever. Dana White must be a very happy man right now. I hope Carwin wipes the floor with Lesnar next Saturday.
I agree that Werdum is very good, and very underrated, but his most high profile fights were a loss to Arlovski (who had such a bad year in 2009 he tried to kill himself) and a devastating 1st round KO loss to Junior Dos Santos. That’s what people are going to think of when they think of the guy who beat Fedor. Not his Abu Dhabi credentials.
Absolutely, totally, 100% agree. But that’s not how the casual fan is going to see it. People are fickle, and they’re going to use this to say he was never that good anyway. And for Strikeforce’s purposes, their cash cow just died. All they had was the mystique of Fedor’s invincibility, and that died last night without question. Fedor (well, arguably Vadim Finkelstein) chose money over glory, and got what he asked for.
It’s going to be VERY interesting to see how Fedor handles this loss psychologically. It can break him, or make him even better.
I think his career strategy from here will tell us a lot about his motivations for fighting.
If he’s all about the cash money, he’ll fight for the next 10 years.
If he wants to cement his now questionable* status as the GOAT, he’ll rematch Werdum and smash him (which I really think is a foregone conclusion), and then either retire with his 1 loss avenged - which is the closest thing to a perfect record you’re ever going to see on a world class mixed martial artist - or go to the UFC and fight the top tier there. Win or lose, he’ll have done it, and earn a lot of respect.
*Not necessarily for losing, but for the path he’s taken since Pride’s collapse.
It always sucks to see such a massive streak unbroken. It will be interesting what happens after this. I would be more worried about his future if his loss came by KO, a lot of time that seems to be death knell of an aging veteran fighter. Watching the video it appears that he just got overly excited and wild after a knockdown.
If a miracle of negotiation is pulled off and he fights in the UFC I’d love for him to cut down to LHW. That seems to be probably the most stacked division in MMA.
I’m more concerned about his ability to match up with the new breed of über-heavyweights-- guys like Brock and Shane who have even more muscle than the old meatheads (Coleman, Frye, Goodridge, etc), and are acquiring the skills to back them up as well. Fedor looked vulnerable underneath Brett Rodgers and I think if Rodgers had had one more year of training under his belt, that fight might’ve had a different outcome. I’m not saying any of these guys are going to out-skill Fedor, but ~50 extra lbs of muscle can make up for a lot of skill. Emelianenko is a flabby ~230lbs.
Fedor isn’t old (he’s actually only 33), but he’s had 35 MMA fights (not counting years of sambo compeitition), including some real wars, and it’s the training that really wears on you the most. Fedor has been through A LOT of training camps.
Cutting weight seems to be a largely American thing (with some Brazillians and western Europeans having caught on.) I think the popularity of high school and college wrestling - along with weight limits in things like youth football leagues - make it more popular and acceptable here. The Japanese, Russians, and eastern Europeans seem to see it as dishonorable, and perhaps dangerous (it is.) I give greater odds to finding out Fedor is actually living tissue over metal endoskeleton than seeing him cut weight.
A little piece of the universe died that night. I was actually upset, especially that he lost in that manner.
I would like to see him beat Werdum and then Overeem. It would be kind of spectacular to see Fedor cut down to face Shogun.
I have a custom bumper sticker on my car: WWFD: What Would Fedor Do?
Lighten up, any offended Christians. I am one, I just think the bracelets and such are way overdone.
I was looking for this thread. I’m glad I found it.
I think Fedor is either getting sloppy or old. And, I do think 33 is old, especially for MMA. (Ok, 35). Brett Rogers could have won that one. I have no idea what Fedor was thinking trying to stand up with him like that and trade. He got hurt that night, but somehow managed to recover. (I’m going on memory here. I have it on my dvr).
This last fight, he got opportunistic and sloppy. He fell for the same thing that he has done so many times before. I guarantee he re-watched that fight and said to himself, “Oh, so, that’s what that feels like.”
The length and intensity of your career are better indicators of “age” in MMA than the number of years you’ve been alive. Shane Carwin is going into his first title fight this weekend at 35, looking spry, while Big Nogueira, Wanderlei Silva, and Fedor himself all have fewer years and look much, much older.
And then there’s of course Randy Couture, The Man Who Time Forgot. He’ll probably at least challenge for a title one more time in his career, if not hold one.
