Who's to blame for Fedor's downfall? Definitely not M-1 Global
Posted on February 17, 2011, 05:07 AM by Anton GurevichFedor Emelianenko's dramatic defeat against Antonio Silva last weekend at the IZOD Center in New Jersey sparked a very heated, and I must admit quite one-sided, debate in Mixed Martial Arts community. Who's to blame for Fedor Emelianenko's two consecutive defeats? It looks like everyone has an automatic answer to this question - Fedor's management, M-1 Global.
People seem to forget that except of being Fedor's management, M-1 Global is a fighting promotion which organizes events all around the world. And just like any promotion, they have to protect their interests, and to defend their main asset, which in this case is "The Last Emperor" Fedor Emelianenko. I won't get any further into discussing how and why Fedor is so important, because in my opinion, it's pretty self explanatory.
Instead, I'll give a link to this marvelous article at FightOpinion.com, where f4wonline.com's Dave Meltzer quoted from his radio show, saying a very interesting opinion about Strikeforce realizing they are at war with the UFC:
"It just amazed me when, you know, again, it’s HDNet covering it as a sport and, you know, Greg Jackson’s there and they interview Greg Jackson and ask him about, you know, how Rashad Evans is doing and how Jonny Jones is doing and, you know, its your competitor and your competitor who’s running in a month, you know, in the same market basically and it was just weird to see. I mean I understand that they’re saying ‘well, we’re just covering it like it’s a sport,’ but you know UFC wouldn’t do that, you know, and… you know they have to realize that they are in a war and the guy who’s on top in the war absolutely knows he’s in a war and behaves like he’s in a war, and you know as their television goes if they’re going to say, ‘well, we’re not in a war,’ they’re probably going to lose a war when you pretend you’re not in it and the other guy who’s more powerful than you knows he’s in it and is pounding on you, so… It’ll take, you know, I don’t know, it was just really, really interesting to see that they… they have the mentality that they’re not in a war.”
I don't necessary agree with Strikeforce not allowing questions about the UFC, because for a fact, Dana White constantly talks about host of various subjects in his post-event interviews. But I'll surely agree, just like probably a majority of people, that Strikeforce and the UFC are in state of fierce competition against each other. It' a tough business. And in this case, M-1 Global are just trying to win the battle.
Blaming M-1 for Fedor's lackluster performances makes no sense at all. Just like bringing up the "psychic" comments made by Fedor's coaches. Yes, you can question M-1's negotiation tactics, but this has nothing to do with Fedor's performance inside the cage.
It looks like everyone forgets about a professional (or technical) aspect of Mixed Martial Arts. What we need to do, is to ask a very specific questions. Such as, what kind of real conclusions Fedor made from defeat against Fabricio Werdum? Why he didn't train with sparring partners as big, and maybe as good as Antonio Silva (Yes, Shane Carwin)? How good is his nutrition with the amount of fasting he does? How motivated he is at the age of 34, after such an illustrious MMA career? I'm pretty confident that by asking some of those, we'll be on our way to find the answer.
There's no doubt about Fedor having to review his current methods. Training camp with the overweight Kiril Sidelnikov and 220-pound M-1 Eastern Europe Heavyweight Champ Maxim Grishin couldn't prepare Fedor for the elite BJJ skills of Fabricio Werdum, and not for the crushing power of 290-pound Antonio Silva.
Randy Couture for example, turned his MMA career into science. Unlike Fedor, "The Natural" adjusted his training and lifestyle as a professional fighter to his advanced age. And when you have a laboratory with fighters such as Martin Kampmann, Vitor Belfort, Gray Maynard and Forrest Griffin, believe me; you'll stay at the top for a very long time.
Yahoo! CageWriter's Steve Cofield and Dave Meltzer perfectly summarize my thoughts:
If Fedor fails to reignite himself and fight his way back to the top, it will be nothing but a logical, or natural if you want, end to his career. His coaches, Vadim Finkelstein, M-1 Global or mysterious witchdoctors will have nothing to do with it. Nobody in the history of combat sports was able to end his career at the top. Fighters will continue to fight as long as they are winning. In the long run, everyone loses, and everyone retires. If not this year, maybe next year, if not next year, maybe in five years, but eventually Fedor will become a part of this simple fact of life.
At the end of the day, Fedor Emelianenko's legacy is undeniable. No one can erase the memories of 2004 PRIDE Heavyweight Grand Prix, or turn victories over the prime Mirko Cro Cop and Minotauro Nogueira into defeats. Fedor will remembered for a very long time as the best Heavyweight in the history of Mixed Martial Arts, and forever as one of the greatest to ever compete in this sport.
Photo: Esther Lin for Strikeforce
Comments
I can agree that Fedor did not lose those fights because of his management.
But that's not to say his management did not ruin his legacy. For years it's been obvious that they have been dodging competition. For years they put him in fights to "try to keep his legacy safe" and put him in against people he was supposed to beat soundly.
The problem - He had absolutely nothing to gain in these fights, and everything to lose. If he wins it would not make him look any better than he was beforehand, if he loses it damages his legacy.
As a man who has a legacy of being a possible #1 P4P, he should be put against top competition. Because they put him in matches where he had nothing to gain, all it accomplished in the end was leaving a huge tarnish on Fedors otherwise great legacy.
And on the topic of him seeming disinterested, only Fedor knows what is going on in his head, but lets be honest here - if you are being put against people who you are supposed to run right thru... can you honestly say that you would have an optimal mindset for the fight? To be fired up you need to be told that this is going to be one of your toughest tests ever.
It's no surprise that in the situation he is in, he hasnt been as fired up as usual. He has not had a fight the caliber of his name in a looong time.
I agree
I don't know if it was specifically his training, it was his STRATEGY that lost him the fights. He's been fighting guys that aren't good enough to punish all of the definite mistakes he was making for so long that he didn't realize that jumping into guard and standing toe to toe with looping punches are bad ideas.
look there were alot of really good fighter he could of fought
that management said no to and if he would of stayed with the great fights he had been doing break here and there but for 4yrs were all guy s on the down slope not like in Pride were they were all great fighters so alot
has to go to management at his age he needed to kept on his game and greed kept that from happening hopefully he will no longer listen to
management telling him this guy is easy.., money in the bank you are Fedor .......start taking chit serous ....a guy with his fighting skills shouldnt get mounted like that same thing happened with Brett not sure he has the drive anymore
@ Spyridon. Please specify your statement - "For years it's been obvious that they have been dodging competition".
In what occassion was it obvious? Define "top competition" for a change, please! Give us some facts or statistics.
All I hear that Fedor did not fight the top competition since 2005. I guess it is meant the UFC. But I never hear a good sounded argument that can back it up. It is the same as saying "GM makes the best cars in the world because GM is the largest car maker in the world" or "Toyota is the most reliable car in the world because it is made in Japan and everybody knows that Japanese cars are the most reliable because it is simply Japanese".
i can describe low lvl competition: tim sylvia, arlovski... both got kicked out of the ufc for sucking and both got knokced out way faster in their fights afer fedor (sylvia koed by mercer, arlovski koed by rogers). rogers put up a decent fight against fedor before being exposed by the reem as a non top heavywheight, and even wurdum got ktfo by dosantos and scurried over to strike force. some examples of top competition: overeem, valasquez, dossantos, frankmir, shanecarwin, and yes... brock lesnar
No, I'm not arguing that he hasnt fought the UFC competition, although there are fights I would obviously love to see.
But he hasnt even fought the top competition in Strikeforce. You havent seen anything that went on with him and Overeem? He was the most legitimate HW Strikeforce had for awhile, and without a doubt has the biggest name/legacy in HW SF at the moment. But they avoided the match at all costs and put him in to other fights. Then when they knew he had another fight, they acted like they wanted it to happen (that's not what they were saying at first)
Sure Arlovski had a name years ago, but look at his recent performance. He has went down like Vera from the top to bottom, and looking at him now u can in no way say he was top competition. Same with Silvia, Rogers, etc. They werent even top contenders in their own company, much less overall. Most of all the majority of fans would have rathered him fight better competition.
Not to mention Werdum was either not on the top 10 hw, or was actually at #10 hw, when he went in to the fight with Fedor.
At the time he deserved nothing less of the very best competition SF had to offer, but that's not the match his management accepted. That's the upsetting part.
If it wasnt for that, he would not have lost to people that he was supposed to run thru. It would have tarnished his legacy much less to lose to a top fighter.
I agree with you regarding not fighting Overeem in 2010, it was a bad year for Fedor. But I think that they tried to keep Overeem for last, best for last, make a dream fight. The problem was that Fedor lost to Werdum. Werdum was his intermetiate fight, which changed it all. M-1 redeemed themselves by make coopromtion HW GP, which didn't work for Fedor either. So, it was Fedors and his training camp fault for not being ready for those fights.
Regarding Arlovski, I gave my thought in my below comments. Fedor fought Arlovski, when he was a top competition, ranked # 3 after Fedor and Barnett. It is not Fedor's fault that Arlovski went down after.
wtf? lol please!
HW division was just super weak...its been the weakest division for a very very long time. If tim sylvia was top tier and got embarrassed by not one but 2 retirees in their 40's, it should say something.
It is a strong argument. But again we are coming to what I talked before. It has no logic. Tim Silvia was ranked #5 by Shedog, when he fought Fedor. Arlovski was ranked# 3 by Sherdog when he fought and he had 5 winning streak including 3 in the UFC and 2 against Roy Nelson and Ben Rothwell, both currently in the UFC. and the fight with Barnett who was ranked # 2, never materialized. It is not Fedor's fault that Silvia and Arlovski got knock out later. Werdum beat Fedor, now Fedor is beat by Silvia, later Overeem beats him. Does it underrate Werdum's victory? I don't think so Arlovski knocked out Nelson whom JDS could not knocked out not long ago, so Arlovski hits harder than JDS. Is this logical? If this is the case then Fedor's management should possess some kind of abilities to predict what's going to happen to his opponents after fighting Fedor to avoid fighting those who gets knocked out later. In this case, they should fight some nobodies now in prediction that those nobodies become number one in 2-3 years. This way Fedor would stay competitive and in your eyes always fights top competition.
No that long ago, Cain started in Srikeforce, so he was nobody, Fedor should have fought him at that time. Now, you would say, Fedor fought number one!
Werdum, Silva, and Rodgers aren't nobodies, they just dont have a legacy such as Fedor, no one in MMA has a career like Fedor.
What down fall?? He lost 2 fights in a row big deal it happens to almost all fighters. The only ones to blame for this so called downfall are the nutty fans that treated him like a god.
I guess the fact that Fedor would never have signed a contract with the UFC that basically would have made him a slave to the organization is not as important as the fact that we find it really hard to understand how Russian do business? There is little doubt that Fedor has made more money then anyone else in MMA history so why would he give up his freedom to join the UFC, especially considering that the UFC has never had the best HW's in the world fighting for them. Back then nobody even knew who Cain was yet.
Personally I don't think the fact that Fedor never joined the UFC had anything at all to do with M1 and everything to do with the UFC and the way they do business.
half the reason rodgers and werdum arnt nobodies is because they fought fedor.
Due to all the Fedor nob slobbers on this site, I blame myself for wishing he would finally lose 1 fight so all the male jocking would slow down a lil, but now i want the dude to get back on his two feet before folks start offing their self.
your comment is looong!
great article anton, its definitely looking at it from a different perspective....i think that, while im in no way doubting the talent and the legacy of fedor, a lot of his fans are possibly looking for scapegoats for his loss, and blaming m-1 or dana instead of admitting that fedor messed up his camp for this one, and when you dont have a good camp you rarely perform aswell, regardless of your natural ability
Good article. I only blame M1 for Fedor not being in the UFC. Werdum made some good points about Fedor's camp and what type of training he's not actually doing. Fedor reminds of Chuck Lidell the key to both of their success in thier prime wasn't really ther training camps or stratergy it was their natrual killer instinct but once you get older that instinct will fade and the only way to halt that decline is to do the things which Anton has mentioned in his article. Just imagine if Fedor had taken Randy approach way before now better yet what if he staring doing that from the pride days, it's a real sacry thought.
father time!! that and a new breed of fighter coming through these days. i heard werdum maybe questioning fedors camp and i think hes right. fedor is old school. the fighters of today are in position to train nearly 24/7, hence the speed of progression and talent of the modern fighters.
great work anton!!!
people have to stop believing everything they read hear and see in the media these days!!!!...do people know that it is not against the law yet to think for themselves!!!....there is definitely a reason fedor lost.this fight and i believe that it is less to do with fedor himself and more to do with the powers that work against him!!!...fedor is a fighter with a brain and in this day and age this is obviosly frowned upon not only by most of the small- minded people that watch this sport but especially by the powers that be in the mma world....fedor is a very rare and dangerous force who dares to think ...act and work for his best interests...which is not very popular in this day and age considering how many slaves work for ufc....we have not seen the last of this great man!!!!...one thing i know for sure ...fedor has always conducted himself very well...no matter what the situation...and that is a rare thing in this world not just in mma....FEDOR IS AN AMAZING HUMAN BEING AND A TRUE WARRIOR!!!!!
so fedor lost because of special powers? get off fedors nuts already
I agree on the fact that Fedor has not evolved as a fighter. We all know that fighters now in days have to keep changing their routines if they want to keep up with the times, and that is something Fedor has refused to do.
I think the guys he fought had great game plans. Werdum wanted to go to the ground and faked the fall or whatever. Bigfoot stood up with Fedor a whole round to set up what he ultimately wanted to do which was take Fedor down. I think you have to give these guys some credit before blaming anyone or anything for his loss. And btw as of right now I still believe Fedor has been the most dominate fighter ever. Fedor is the best.
Sorry, I don't agree. In the last five years Fedor should have been fighting twice as much as he did and against better competition. M1 didn't keep him active enough with challenging fighters. M1 has the fastest most finely tuned sports car in the world and they left it in the garage and only rarely took it out to race against mini-vans.
Again. Can you please give some facts and statistics? Don't just say it.
2006-2010 - Cain - 9 fights, 2.25 per year
Shane - 2005-2010 - 13 fights,2.6 per year
Brock - 2007- 2010- 7 fights, 2.3 per year
Mir-2006-2010-9 fights, 2.25 per year
JDS - 2006-2010-13 fights, 3.25 per year
Fedor -2006-2010-9 fights, 2.25 per year
So, Fedor was figting no less than any top fighter and Cain, JDS just starting their career, so they should fight more, just like Fedor when he started.
I agree that Fedor should adjust his training methods to news conditions, but that's not really M-1 managment fault.
Lets talk about the recent problem years. No one is claiming M1 mismanaged him in the Pride days. 2008 - 2010 = 3 years. 1.6 fights per year. The worst rate on your list.
After Pride days, Fedor fought 6 times. Mir, Cain, Shane, Brock and JDS fought 7 times during this period. Wow! They really fight way more than Fedor in the deepest most competitive HW division.
M-1 did well in getting those fights, but Fedor did not adjust to the flow of MMA.
Since going pro in 2008 JDS fought 7 times
Since joining ufc in 2008 Cain fought 7 times
Since 2008 Mir will have fought 7 time (in Mar 2011)
Since joining UFC in 2008 Carwin has fought 5 times (+ 3 in 2007 preUFC)
Since joining UFC in 2008 Lesnar will have fought 7 times (incl JDS 2011)
In the same time period the "best fighter in the world fought 5 times and some questionable talent (for the world's best fighter).
Muhammad Ali lost his best years stripped of the title while sitting out the Vietnam war. Fedor lost his best years when M1 sparingly put him up against a few good fighters. He should have been cleaning out the division world wide. That was his potential and M1 didn't let him live up to it.
Fedor's opponents were not questionable at the time of the fights. Carwin, Cain, Mir and JDS were not top condenters at that time. Now yes!
I'm sure we both agree we would like to see him fight more.
Take care.
M1 is looking for the next Brett Rogers for Fedor to fight. If Fedor won't be fighting some of the top dogs in SF then who he fights next is irrelevant.
stupid comment!
Antosha,,,ty ne o tom ,,,kak raz vse naoborot,,
vinovato vse okrujenie Fedora,,,kogda te postoyanno govoryat (you the best)...nahren voshe che delat*,,esli ty uje the best,,,
Fedor must go to AKA,,,
Again, the idea is not to find excuses, but instead, to find the problem and come up with a solution. Hypothetically speaking of course, lets face it, it's not like Fedor is reading this blog. Nonetheless, he needs to change training camp!
I blame his commitment. I don't have any loss of respect for him though, he's been living training for over a decade. At some point anyone would become weiry of something like that.
Wasn't it Fedor's own coaches who said he lost because he was hypnotized by hidden psychics in the audience before the fight? I can't say that kind of support is doing much good for him.
i feel its just easier to blame M-1
Has a fiduciary duty to it's fighters. Five years of cans (read; fighters not in any title picture whatsoever) and walking away from what was projected by pretty much everyone involved as the richest contract in MMA history (whether it was with the UFC or any other promotion, for that matter) is a breech of this duty, unequivocally. Fink is a promoter. Fink is a manager. Whose interests come first, his client(s), or the promotions? Anyone who believes the two are interchangeable are misinformed, at the very least it is a huge possibility of someone's interests (the client in most cases) being secondary. This is exactly why athletes have agents. I don't know any other sport where the athletes would see the owners as their managers as advantageous to their interests in any way.
Look, I love Fedor as much as anyone else, but my affection for him doesn't extend to selective criticism. Fedor is too loyal, and Fink isn't nearly loyal enough. and that's about as bad a foundation as there can be.
no1 is to blame but fedor. He got caught and lost to a 300 lb giant, it happens but he will be back!
The guys in the video were actually making a few good points until they started talking as if Fedor is already history or if he went down to 205 he would be destroyed by John Jones.... dumbshits.... who gives microphones to these guys anyway.... I've wasted 5 mins of my life listening to them.
These radio hosts aere dumb as-es and don't know anything about mma. Fedor has no technique? Hmmmm, he is only an International Master in sports Judo and a Grand Master in Sambo..
I wanna see Fedor vs Hendo at open weight!
its all m1 globals fault..the writers on this site SUCK!
U suck!!!!
People have short memories, not so long ago everyone was saying this about Miguel Torres after he lost to Bowles and Benavidez and now he's back on the winning track. Fedor really needs to drop Red Devil and get out into another camp, it's all about Fedor in Red Devil anyway
realisticly i think its more about a combination of size and age. if you watch the fight silva didnt really out class him in any aspect he just over powered him.. fedor is old when it comes to fighter years he has been in alot of wars which wear on your body. when your only 5' 11'' 230 pounds with 20 pounds of that around your waist you need every advantage you can get fighting a 6' 4'' 290 pound well rounded fighter like silva. i would also like to add congrats to silva for fighting a near perfect fight he did excactly what he needed to do to win against a legend of the sport.
Thank you. Perfect comment.
It looks Fedor is going the same way as the other former PRIDE stars.. his performance is declining. Just look at Mirco or the Big Nog. Still they are all legends for me.
It´s hard to say, whether it´s caused by the dynamic evolution of MMA, which they were unable to face, or if they just lost their devotions and killer instincts. I don´t think it´s because they are too old. Look at Carwin, Henderson or Randy, they are all far over 30 and still able to compete with the best.
Fedor fought even some bigger guys in the past and was always able to find a way to win. I think the problem is mainly in his head not with his size.
I don't think the age is a factor in case of Mirko, Big Nog and Fedor. They just lost their killer instinct. Although, they are younger than Carwin and Couture, they had way more fights in MMA, including Grand Prix in Pride where you had to fight two fights in one day.
Old cars with lower milage and new cars with more milage. Mirko had about 70 fights including K-1, and they hit you in the head.
Fedor is the one to blame for anything that happens to him in the octagon. Hes been pro for long enough that he knows what he needs to do to win. So if his management or coach does not give it to him, hes a big boy he should take care of it himself. Just sayin hes grown his mistakes are just that "HIS MISTAKES"