Quote:
Originally Posted by Triple
Anyone who says Fedor fights nobodies and has-beens really needs to take another look at his record. The number of highly ranked fighters he has defeated at the height of each of their careers is what makes Fedor number one. He has had a few oddballs mixed in, but so do most other fighters who have been in the game as long as he has.
Even his last two opponents, who everyone now refers to as UFC rejects, were top-ten heavyweights when they faced him. Arlovski was coming off a five-fight winning streak. Sylvia was 7 and 2 in his nine fights prior to fighting Fedor, and not long before was the UFC's most dominant heavyweight champion ever.
To call the heavyweights outside of the UFC cans is a joke. If anyone really believes that Barnett, Overeem, Silva, Rogers and company couldn't compete with guys like Lesnar, Carwin, Dos Santos, and Velasquez, they don't really follow the sport.
If Fedor cut like most other fighters, with his current muscle mass he could make middleweight. Where I believe he would have more trouble than he does now at heavyweight.
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Tim Sylvia hasn't been an effective fighter in years. He's always had the advantage of towering over his opponents, but in recent times, even before the loss to Fedor, he was on the downside of his career. His last fight was an 8 second embarassment that had his sorry ass being knocked out by Ray Mercer despite coming in over 300 pounds.
Arlovski has been hit or miss in recent fights also, coming in with weak showings against strong opponents. He was below the curve on the way out of UFC.
Fedor's last couple fights have been a joke. It's been a decent outing from Arlovski, the embarassment that is Tim Sylvia, the circus act of Hong Man Choi, a hit or miss Matt Lindland, a useless Mark Hunt, and a fading Mark Coleman. He's had some stellar victories and was a dominant force for a long time, but that's over. Rogers is still young to the sport and may be on his way up, but his fight with Arlovski was his first taste of anything more competitive than the Elite XC failures. Overeem is inconsistent. Josh Barnett is going to be under intense scrutiny after testing positive for steroids. These aren't challenges. These are mid-level guys being used to bolster a small MMA production. Everything that has built Fedor up is years past now. It's like saying that Chuck Liddell or Royce Gracie are the best fighters in the sport today based on their past. Once upon a time, yes. Now? No. Fedor can't continue to be the default "greatest" fighter when he slums in the B-leagues.