Fedor Fights on Saturday
The legend that is Fedor Emelianenko gets back in action this Saturday night at Strikeforce & M-1: San Jose. Unfortunately for all MMA fans his opponent is not Brock Lesnar, Shane Carwin, or even Cain Velasquez. Of course those three fighters all belong to the UFC and Fedor appears to what nothing to do with the most successful organization in the sport. Instead Fedor will square off with Fabricio Werdum, who is 13-4 but went just 2-2 in the UFC.
Werdum came in #10 on BostonThrowdown's most recent MMA Rankings, which would also make him #3 for fighter outside the UFC. So even though a Fedor vs. Werdum fight does not fire up most MMA fans, with the exception of Fedor vs. Alistair Overeem (which hopefully will happen in the Fall) there's not much else for Fedor.
Fedor's last fight in the now defunct Pride organization was on the last night of 2006. Since then he is just 5-0. He beat natural Middleweight Matt Lindland, freak-show Hong Man-Choi, a pair of former UFC Champions Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski (who have since proved they were both washed up), and most recently Brett Rogers. Not the most impressive resume for the supposed #1 Heavyweight in the world.
In fact the BostonThrowdown crew itself is pretty split on who is truly the best Heavyweight in MMA. Is it still Fedor? How can we possibly know for sure when he won't get in the cage with the best fighters in the world. If/when he beats Werdum he better hope that him and Overeem have a classic match up that demands a rematch or he's going to be hurting for fights and trotting out former greats like Mark Hunt.
I expect him to dominate on Saturday night, but will anyone care? The longer he continues to fight outside the UFC the less interesting he becomes. The Heavyweights in the UFC continue to get better, besides the top tier of Lesnar, Carwin, and Velasquez, you still have Mir, Dos Santos, Big Nog, and Nelson, all of whom would be more entertaining than a bout with Werdum.
If you forgot how good Fedor was/is, I don't blame you. But check out the highlight video below.
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