Fedor Emelianenko: Two mistakes in a row can not be coincidence, I do not want to allow a third
Posted on June 20, 2011, 04:54 PM by Joey Santosus
"I did speak of retiring and it was said in haste. Two mistakes in a row can not be coincidence. I do not want to allow a third, which is why I thought about departing from the sport. But then I discussed the situation with my coaches and spiritual father when I got home. After this I was absolutely sure that it is not the time for retirement and I must continue to fight. Now I'm training and preparing for the next battle with Dan Henderson."
"I've drawn conclusions on what areas of my training need work and what to pay attention to in training and in battle. This time I have trained in Holland, in Russia and again at the training camp in Holland. I work with people who are the best in their disciplines and are focused on preparing me for the battle with Dan Henderson...Training for a fight is never easy regardless of the opponent. I train and prepare for every contest the same so I can compete to the best of my abilities. - For complete interview by Jonathan Snowden, visit SBNation.com
After suffering a shock submission loss to Fabricio Werdum in 2010, the first legitimate defeat of his professional career, Fedor Emelianenko seemed poised for redemption heading into the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix. It was not to be so, however, as he found himself outsized and outmuscled in the quarterfinal round by the six-foot-four Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva. Though a valiant effort was put forth by the Russian, damaged sustained throughout the first ten-minutes resulted in a doctor stoppage, and consequently, Silva was awarded the victory via TKO.
"The Last Emperor" will now look to right those wrongs as he heads into Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson on July 30th, where he will square off with fellow legend and veteran of the sport, Dan Henderson. "Hendo" will carry the momentum of a two fight win streak into the bout, including a victory over Rafael Cavalcante in his latest outing to capture the Light Heavyweight title.
So what do you think LowKick'ers? Will "The Last Emperor" set the record straight against Dan Henderson? Or will his naysayers re-write history in the face of his defeat?
Photo: Fedor Emelianenko before his fight against Tim Sylvia at Affliction's "Banned", a mixed martial arts fight at the Honda Center on July 19, 2008 in Anaheim, California. Francis Specker
Comments
I really hope Fedor comes back to the way he was focused, hungry and humble.
anyone else get that devestated feeling, proper sadness when fedor loses? more than any other of your favourite fighters? lol
i think that if fedor beats hendo (which i think he will) then it is proof that he would better serve himself at LHW....when fedor dominated HW, it was a division of fat guys and potential LHWs who didnt want to cut the weight, now its got beasts like silva and overeem who have evolved with the sport, in my humble opinion fedor should do likewise...
Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos ,#1-#2 HW's in the world, neither weigh in close to 265. both could actually drop down to LHW.
you just bought into the "propaganda" pushed by the UFC about Lensar, he's so big,strong, blah blah blah.
yeah genius, i was commenting to partyboy not you
also your comment is poor
overeem "the k-1 fighter"? he has more MMA matches under his belt then prokickboxing(47 in MMA 14 in kickboxing), he's been doing MMA for a long time. he just didn't want to play around on the ground with one of the best BJJ guys in the world. not to mention he actually has more submission victories than KO's, he's got 19 sub/14 ko. he didn't play around on the ground with Werdum for the same reason GSP didn't play there with Jake Shields. werdum and ricardo arona only the only men to have sub'ed overeem out in his whole mma career.
bigfoot silva is actually a inch shorter than overeem(overeem is 6'5" bigfoot is 6'4") and only has a 1/2 inch on him in the reach. i agree that people don't take bigfoot as seriously as they should even after his defeat over Emelianenko.
the point that i was making is that both Velasquez and Dos Santo's are around fedors size,and both have beaten larger athletic HW's in lesnar/carwin. it's a B.S. idea that these larger athletic HW's are the future, its just a hype promo they where pushing because of lesnar holding the title.
jds is 6-4 240 pounds of lean muscle cain is 6-3 245 also lean, fedor although he is listed as 6-0 the reality is he is about 5-10 5-11 230 with a fifteen pound spare tire around his waist i dont really see how the are close in size. if fedor went on a diet and cut an average amount of weight he would be a large MW
cain isn't that lean, he could lose a bit of weight. but for both men it would be similar to most LHW's shed about 15-25 pounds days before they hit the scales. 230 is his fighting weight he is around 245 when he is walking around.
i think fedors career is simply coming to a end, 34 going on 35 seems a bit old to start cutting drastic amounts of weight off. and he would likely suffer a speed disadvantage which would be totally new for him since he is often used to being the quicker man.
...I don't know what to say about this fight (too epic), but I'm glad Fedor is training with the best. I think he now realizes fighters are constantly evolving, if he wants to be the best again, he needs to evolve his game...we all know the talent and the heart are there, but is it too late now? I just hope not.
i really don't want to see either of these guys lose, i think if Fedor gets beat, it will be the last we see of him in the ring, and that well... sucks.
Hendo can continue on, on paper hes supposed to lose in the first place, and he has come back from numerous losses.
I would really like Fedor to lose the extra fat he has, drop to 205, and make one last run for a belt in the 205 division.
I'm a monster fan of both guys, but I want to see Fedor win. I feel like after the Hendo fight, he's the guy that can be involved in the more interesting match ups going forward.
fedor should walk through dan henderson with ease...hendo is not a great fighter just an average one at best...never captured the ufc gold at two weight classes..thats my point...fedor all the way to the bank...
As much as i like Hendo watching him get drop by Cavalcante was shocking, never seen Hendo hurt before.
Fedor is a very hard puncher himself and his been fighting heavyweights for a decade and yet hes never been KO , TKO or Knockdown , Like Hendo said it will take more than an H-Bomb
to KO Fedor.
My prediction would be Fedor being to fast for Hendo and eventually getting a TKO win .
Dan Henderson was the only Pride fighter to hold belts in both weight classes he fought for two UFC titles, lost a close decision against Ramapage in his prime and was the first person to win a round again A.silve in the UFC. He has wins over numerous top opponents and now he holds the strikeforce light heavyweight belt. Average at best? I think not.
yeah like i said average at best..look at w silva another average fighter from pride....hate if you want but these are the facts.. the guys that have come to the ufc from pride along with all the other guys in different orgs did not turn out to be that great...big and lil nog suck at best, wandy will never be champ..fedor finally fought fought two guys that are sub par and lost to both. overeem would get spanked in the ufc for sure...and dan henderson never reached the titles that actually counted...the only guys that turned out to be ok fighters are shogun and rampage...all the rest were highly touted and did nothing to back that shit up....that is a fact...regardless if hendo was the first to win a round against anderson silva he was still finished like a bitch by anderson so whats that tell you...im out..
those are pseudo-facts my friend. Wandy was already on a down slope in his career when he came into the UFC, he was a two win losing streak before enter the octagon. If you say that rampage is an O.K. fighter then you must acknowledge the ass whooping Silva put on him, not once, but twice. Rampage also destroyed Chuck in Pride. It's mentally ill to compare current UFC with Pride 6 years ago. Pride was the premiere MMA organization at that time. Anderson Silva is only 3-2 in Pride, but has been the champ in the UFC for the past 5 years. Not to mention the differences in rules and rounds plus ring vs cage issue, the list goes on.
Listen, when a MMA vet and trainer says someone is the best take their word for it, they know more than we do.
Both are legends of MMA, though I am not sure about this fight. Hendo is a MW although can fight LHW quite easily. Fedor is a HW who is really a bloated LHW, so Fedor should have size and strength advantage, which leaves Hendo with a slight speed advantage and his H bomb. Given Fedor is tough as nails, i don't fancy Hendo's chances much, and Fedor will be ultra determined to win this one too.
Hendo is prob the smallest opponent Fedor ever faced but I think he is the best wrestler and one of the best strikers so this is gonna be really interesting.
I'm Glad that Fedor is not looking for widen his training. I was watching Fedor Emelianenko: The BADDEST man on the planet, and I think his biggest problem was that he was the top dog in the club (Red Devils) which is terrible cause he could not grow while everyone in the HW division are branching out to train with other fighters to push themselves and grow as a fighter Fedor only trained with the Red Devils. I think it was both a right decision and a wrong decision, Right cause why change the training regiment that propelled you to the top of MMA and wrong cause he was not able to grow as a fighter. MMArtist understand the value of growing with the sports gone are the days of "great at one thing and alright with the rest" attitude you either evolved or get extinct. I for one is glad that Fedor is now reaching out to perfect and evolve his game and I will be looking forward to see him fight.
Side note: I think if Fedor loses this match he might call it a day in his career.
I'm Glad that Fedor is now looking for widen his training. I was watching Fedor Emelianenko: The BADDEST man on the planet, and I think his biggest problem was that he was the top dog in the club (Red Devils) which is terrible cause he could not grow as an MMArtist, while everyone in the HW division are branching out to train with other fighters to push themselves and grow as a fighter, Fedor only trained with the Red Devils. I think it was both a right decision and a wrong decision, Right cause why change the training regiment that propelled you to the top of MMA and wrong cause he was not able to grow as a fighter. MMArtist understand the value of growing with the sports gone are the days of "great at one thing and alright with the rest" attitude you either evolve or get extinct. I for one is glad that Fedor is now reaching out to perfect and evolve his game and I will be looking forward to see him fight.
Side note: I think if Fedor loses this match he might call it a day in his career.
There's nothing new in this article.
only your stupidity and ignorance are not new.
Except the entire thing...
This whole article been posted. Not sure why idiots are acting like it's new.
its all in your head... limitless stupidity
if he beats Hendo is no point runining after the LHW belt.Fedor is never been KO'd and Hendo is the master of that is very dengerus fight for Fedor
I think this catchweight fight might be a ploy to get Fedor back into his fighting shape. If he has to make 220 he will lose some chub. He truly only has to lose 10-13 pounds. Dan isn't the fastest guy out there, he plants his feet and lets go of the baseball and if it hits you are pretty much done unless you are Jake Shields. I think it would be a bit silly for Hendo to throw the overhand right the whole night cus he will tire, i think Hendo will try to grind out this fight. I've always believed that to beat Fedor you would have to be basically be on top of him the whole fight, Dan has the skill to do just that. None of the less i'd love to see Fedor win.
it's not a catchweight fight it's a heavyweight fight and i hope fedor loses for trying to prey on smaller big names to revamp his career if he wins this will do nothing for him
Nothing?
Hendo is the Strikeforce LHW champion, and a legend of the sport. I highly disagree.
And by the by, Hendo is not that small, nor is Fedor that big. They're practically the same size.
Two mistakes ???
I call it losing twice, no mistake, he just lost.
Mistakes lead to losses. Duh...