Coach Vladimir Voronov: Fedor won't run away down to 205 (Exclusive Interview)
Posted on July 17, 2011, 06:24 AM by Anton Gurevich
On July 30th, Fedor Emelianenko will step inside the Strikeforce cage for the 4th time in his career, this time facing the fellow MMA legend and former PRIDE Champion Dan "Hendo" Henderson at Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Fedor will look to bounce back from two consecutive defeats, against Fabricio Werdum via Submission and Antonio Silva via TKO (Doctor Stoppage).
The fight against Henderson will be a defining moment in Fedor Emelianenko's illustrious MMA career.
One of the men behind Fedor's success as a Mixed Martial Artist, is his eternal SAMBO coach and mentor Vladimir Voronov, who trains "The Last Emperor" since the age of twelve. Voronov holds numerous honors as SAMBO specialist and coach, including the prestigious "Honoured Coach of Russia".
We had an opportunity to speak to the SAMBO legend about Fedor Emelianenko's preparations for Dan Henderson, motivation, the state of Russian MMA and much more:
You recently returned from the training camp in Kislovodsk, where Fedor Emelianenko continued his preparations for the fight against Dan Henderson. What was different in this training camp, comparing to the last one you had for Antonio Silva?
We had a very successful training camp in Kislovodsk. There are no big differences from the previous one. Although we made some adjustments for Henderson as an opponent and to the intensity of Fedor's training.
Everyone was surprised to see Fedor and Alexander Emelianenko training together. What kind of effect it had on Fedor's preparation?
Well, first of all, they are brothers. Alexander wanted to train and he joined us for this camp. I consider him to be the second best Russian fighter after Fedor. And that's exactly why having him as a sparring partner was a very positive thing for Fedor.
Dan Henderson is well known for his "H-Bomb", heavy right hand that knocked out many opponents throughout history. Do you consider it to be his main weapon in the fight against Fedor Emelianenko?
It's hard to tell. Every fighter has his own advantages and disadvantages. That's something we'll find out only on July 30th.
Henderson recently stated that he thinks Fedor has problems with motivation. What can you say about Fedor's motivation coming to this bout?
Right now, he's very motivated. It's hard to say what will happen during the fight, because it all depends on Fedor. As coaches, we have done and are doing everything in our power to help Fedor reaching the peak of his physical and psychological condition. Now, everything depends on Fedor.
What in your opinion is the key for victory against Dan Henderson?
The will to win.
Many people in Mixed Martial Arts community think that Fedor should move down to 205 (93kg). Do you think Fedor will be more effective as a fighter at that weight?
I can't see any sense in Fedor moving down to 205. Why would he do it? To run away from someone? I think that if Fedor returns to the previous workload, today's Heavyweights will struggle against him. The most important thing here is to have the right motivation and training regime. If you want to win, you have to play by the rules.
You're training Fedor since he's 12. What can you say about his evolution as a fighter, since his first day in your gym, through PRIDE days and until today?
Obviously, Fedor grew and matured a lot since his early years in the sport. There's a lot of changes, psychological and physiological. He still has the same character. Maybe he's a little tired of the sport. He trains all the time, since his childhood, and managed to maintain all his human qualities.
What can you say about fighters such as Anderson Silva, Jon Jones and Cain Velasquez?
All are good guys, and I hope they will keep up the good work.
And about the current generation of "Russian" MMA? Alexander Shlemenko, Maxim Grishin, Guram Gugenishvili, Alexander Sarnavskiy...?
They are young guys, who have a very bright future in this sport. Right now, they have to work as hard as they can. The only way to improve and to achieve success is to train hard.
Comments
Независимо от исхода боя, Федор вписал свое имя как великий чемпион ММА. Федору победы в предстоящем бою. А Хендерсену желаю не проиграть нокаутом.
Instead he'll stand his ground and get humped by bigger opponents. Fedor's management is shit he's a LHW for christ sake!
Is that why he got raped by bigfoot?
sorry not so dominant anymore, you should start changing your statement to, "hes the most dominant fighter from 2000-2010"
win streaks are not everything ffs, lets see what Fedor is doing when he is 36. Silva is older and still dominant.
He is just 1 " shorter and not much lighter than Cain - he could still be dominant at hw - I think he could even progress if he would eventually train with world class mma fighters!
.....and maybe convert his love handles into some extra muscle for extra super punching power.
Then why is he fighting Hendo (a 205er)? Because he can't handle the Bigfoots of the world.
that Silva makes his own decisions? and doesnt do exactly what his management (Fedor) says, Fedor turned himself into an M1 puppet
if he wants to fight at HW let him fight. It is his decisions, ultimately.
Fedor owns something 7% of M1
What I find telling is the statement about returning to his previous work load and dominating today's HWs. That says to me that Fedor has been slacking off. It will be interesting to see what happens if Fedor is in fact remotivated. Personally, I think he would be a fool to go down to 205. He is a small, flabby HW but he has a huge skill and speed advantage over the vast majority of HWs and has plenty of power at that weight. As Tim Sylvia said, "I ain't never been hit that hard". At 205 he has no advantage.
I agree, the main reason for Fedor's recent loses is the lack of dedication, no evolution in his training routine, the will to win ( I'm sure he could have found a way to beat a bigger guy in Silva if he had made adjustments to his game) When you've been fighting all your life, it can become a lil boring even with success. I say Fedor is back to win his last fights and retire as the Ali of MMA.
Fedor would have to have 50x more Charisma to even be mentioned in the same sentence as Muhammed Ali
Ray Mercer hit Sylvia 10x harder than Fedor ever dreamed of... you people saying he is this great KO artist... I personally have never seen him flat KO anyone with one shot except Glass Jaw Arlovski, its always a TKO Ref Stoppage WHEN he does win by TKO
Your a ****ing idiot just shut up man.
Sorry Fedor nuthuggers, Ray Finklestein has The Last Emperor on strings like a puppet.
Yeah, just like ufc fighters and you are Dana's biaches.
If Fedor wins this fight, then you can say "YA! hes coming back" but until then, it does indeed look like the slow fall of the Emperor. Theres alot riding on his fight with Hendo. If he wins, he is back in business... but if he loses, Im afraid to say it wont look good for Fedor cuz that would be 3 straight
Man, he's only lost two fights. If that constitutes a slow decline then half the guys currently on top should have called it quits years ago.
It seems to me that a lot of people discredit fighters (Fedor, in this case) as not fighting top competition, but give credit to 'current' fighters fighting under the UFC banner. The logic is twisted and not sound. O.K. Cain is the best HW in the UFC at the moment, but he hasn't beaten JDS, Shane, Mir, Tim Sylvia, Couture, Werdum, Barnett, Overeem, Big Foot, Arlovski. He has really only two big wins in his career. Nog (whom isn't ranked top 10) and Brock. Just because he is the UFC HW champion does not credit him as the best HW fighter in the world. Currently the linear champion is Overeem.
Fedor's standup is as good as any striker. His takedowns were superb and his ground and pound is pure violence. Those 3 combinations and his stamina made him the legend he is today. However he did not try taking down Silva, probably cautious about Silva's bjj and his recent loss to Werdum still in the back of his head. If Fedor can overcome the fear of bjj subs and train harder to defend against it (gracie has shown that you can succesfully escape an arm triangle even if it is tight), incorporate his major strenghts back into his gameplan, he can still be a major force in any weight class. Even being out of his prime, he still can have plenty fights ahead of him.
I agree to a certain point. But i don't think Fedor is afraid to go to the ground. He did jump into Big Foots guard and did well on top and controlled him. He also reversed big foots takedown from the clinch which is amazing given the size difference. I just think he thought that Silva will stand and trade, he was totally unprepared for the double (i think). Bad game plan, thats two in a row now. We'll see how he bounced back.
Fedor can't make LHW. He's meeting Henderson at a catchweight. If he depleted himself cutting too much weight, he'd put on a depleted performance,resulting in another loss. And Dan Henderson is no pushover; he'd smash a Fedor that had to starve to make 205. I think Fedor is making the right decision staying at HW. He will return to the winning ways of the last emperor.
He couldn't make it for this fight but if he dieted and lost the fat he could probably cut to MW. The only thing that make me doubt whether he could get that low is that he looks like he has some massive pecs under that fat. There may be less fat than we imagine. Still, without it he could make LHW. I don't think that he should but he could.
Yor absolutely right on with that. He could make the weight with the right diet and training rigime. But then he loses some of those advantages you wrote about in the process. I think that this man could do anything he puts his mind to. He is unbreakable in his heart. There have been so many times he was on the losing end of fights, just to come back and win- out of nowhere it seemed. He's usually the favorite; but he looks like the underdog when you see his often enormous opponent.
No he wont run off down to 205lbs, he'll just fight 185lbers like Hendo instead. I hope you Fedor fans realise this fight is a lose lose situation for him. If he wins, people will say it was an easy fight for him fighting a 185/205lber, if he loses, people are gonna say, man! Fedor got whooped by a 185lber! I dont understand why he took this fight, probably because it's his best chance of winning and he doesn't want to lose three in a row.......