By now, you already know that Fabricio Werdum submitted Fedor Emelianenko on national TV Saturday night, submitting the Last Emperor in the first round. That development alone will no doubt shake up the heavyweight rankings internationally. Does it change things on a grand scale?
Not very likely.
There will be plenty of arguments, both for against Fedor being the best pound-for-pound MMA fighter on Earth. I, for one, am not going to put my two cents in on that particular argument as I suspect there are plenty of criteria out there being used to use the “pound-for-pound” comparison. A litle critical thinking is in order here.
Another question that I am sure that has been raised is: Is Fedor the best heavyweight? My take on that question is that yes he is, despite his loss to Werdum. We’re talking about two losses in Emelianenko’s career. But another thing to consider in this argument is the quality of Fedor’s opponents during his career.
He’s beaten some quality opponents (Andrei Arlovski, Mark Coleman, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Renato Sobral, Mirko Filipovic) and a fair share of scrubs (Hong-Man Choi, Zuluzinho, Kevin Randleman, Heath Herring, etc.). So it’s really hard to say what the ratio of good opponents vs. the scrubs is, but you cannot question the end result.
After December 2005, Fedor’s fighting schedule decreased markedly as he would take just two fights a year, except for 2008 when he took on and defeated Tim Sylvia at Afliction: Banned.
So where does Emelianenko go from here?
There’s been rumblings about a rematch with Werdum – which makes sense – but with Fedor’s loss, there are probably other heavyweights that want a piece of Emelianenko. You also have to consider his current contract with Strikeforce and M-1 Global. I suspect that will dictate who Emelianenko’s next opponent will be.
In any case, Fedor isn’t going anywhere.
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