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Fedor: Human After All?
30 Jun 2010
By Jamie Kennedy
“If it bleeds we can kill it”
Saturday 27th of June 2010 is a date that is now embedded deep in Mixed Martial Arts history, a significant date in a story just in its infancy. On this very night the man considered by some to be the Worlds greatest ever fighter: Fedor Emalianenko, stood across the Cage from Fabricio Werdum; little did anyone know of what was about to occur. To cut a long story short, “Big” Jon McCarthy lowered his hand and beckoned the warriors to fight; one minute and nine seconds later the fight was over. The man with the most hyperbole since Superman had just tapped to a man with a 50/50 record in the UFC.
Ever since the fall of Pride MMA fans around the World had been dreaming about fantasy match ups involving Fedor, first up, was the likes of Randy Couture or Chuck Liddell, then came the mouth watering prospect of him taking on Brock Lesnar; now with the sudden up swing in talent in the heavyweight division there were so many exciting possibilities. My personal favourite would have been Junior Dos Santos. However that mystique has been destroyed by the top Werdums triangle choke. As I saw Fedor tap, I thought “this guy is Human” and instantly remembered the famous quote from the film Predator ~ “If it bleeds we can kill it”.
"I've signed Brock Lesnar, who came from, the WWE, James Toney from boxing – he's a nut chasing me all over the place –Tito Ortiz, whom I hated, and he hated me. I signed him twice when we hated each other. I've kept Chuck Liddell, kept Matt Hughes, kept Rich Franklin, when they were all champions. Anderson Silva, I've dealt with all the crazy [expletive] with him; but I can't sign Fedor? How is this possible that I can't sign this guy? It's not possible. These guys don't want to fight the best in the world."- Dana White, UFC President.
As a fan I felt mixed emotions watching Fedor tap, first of all I was excited, being British I always pull for the underdog; that’s just what we do. Secondly I was a little bit disappointed, this guy is supposed to be a machine, yet he’s just tapped out. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not once of those people who thinks, it’s “sissy” to tap, far from it. It just that, we’ve been spoon fed the idea that Fedor is superhuman, a product, manufactured in the Chernobyl fall out. Before Saturday the thought of Fedor tapping would be like hearing Batman sleeps with a night light or Spiderman sucks his thumb.
I suppose the biggest winner is the UFC: Firstly it makes Saturday’s bout with Brock Lesnar and Shane Carwin about a Million times more significant, Fedor’s loss just elevated the fight to “Super Fight” status. Secondly the loss makes Fedor more Human and less of a mythical being, hence, when contracted talks with the UFC resume, they can no longer be held to ransom Fedor’s agents M1 Global. Negative amortization of their product means they have to back down or Fedor will find fights very hard to come by and if he doesn’t compete against top level fighters then his legacy is a truly tarnished. In fact he needs to hope that a fight between him and Alistair Overeem takes place soon; as that is the only win outside the UFC that can propel him to those heights of pound for pound great; once again.
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