| 27 June 2010
There's an old adage in mixed martial arts that anything can happen once two fighters square off in the cage (or ring). All it takes is one punch or one mistake on the behalf of a fighter for the tides to turn and the match to end quickly. Never was this more apparent than in last night's Fedor Emelianenko-Fabricio Werdum Strikeforce fight. Fedor was supposed to be invincible - a killing machine sent back from the future to annihilate mixed martial artists. But even Fedor gets caught, once in a while (once in a long while).
But stating that Fedor just got "caught" last night is a fallacy, as Kenny Florian duly noted on his Twitter account. Werdum is a jiu-jitsu world champion multiple times over and Fedor's over aggression or overconfidence or sloppiness (or all three) allowed Werdum to tangle him up not once, but twice. Basically Emelianenko played the fly; Werdum the spider.
All the talk that Werdum beating Fedor is one of the biggest, most shocking upsets of all-time is a bit of a stretch also. It's not like Fedor lost to Bob Sapp or Hong-Man Choi; he lost to an experienced, world class mixed martial artist who has also competed in Pride and the UFC. Werdum has been in wars and has beaten Gabriel Gonzaga (twice), Brandon Vera and Alistair Overeem. While it is a surprise that anyone beat Fedor, classifying this as biggest upset in the history of the world is an insult to the only man to beat both Emelianenko brothers, Werdum. When you consider that Fedor played right into his hands by going to the ground with him, the outcome becomes even less shocking.
And if anyone thinks that this loss puts into questions Fedor's legacy as the greatest heavyweight of all-time, they need to give their head a shake. There is no other heavyweight - no other fighter at any weight, for that matter - that can come close to touching Fedor's resume. He basically didn't lose his first match until 10 years and 35 battles had ensued. His list of victims include Renato Sobral, Heath Herring, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (twice), Mark Coleman (twice), Mirko Cro Cop, Matt Lindland, Kevin Randleman, Gary Goodridge, Tim Syvlia and Andrei Arlovski. And he topped the majority of those men while they were still in their primes, so the myth that Emelianenko dodges top competition is nothing more than that - a myth. Fedor is the greatest heavyweight of all-time, and it isn't even close.
But everyone loses eventually. Even Drago.
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