If Fedor Emelianenko Is Not the Best Heavyweight Ever, Who Is?
By Kevin Sampson ,
Perhaps the most hotly contested topic among Mixed Martial Arts fans centers around Fedor Emelianenko. Is he the greatest MMA fighter of all time? Is he the greatest Heavyweight the sport has ever seen? Or is he unproven and over-rated?
Many MMA fans will say that Fedor Emelianenko is unquestionably the best Heavyweight MMA fighter in the history of the sport.
Others will tell you that this is absolute nonsense and that he's never proven himself against the best fighters in Mixed Martial Arts.
No matter which side of the argument anyone happens to be on, you have to answer this very important question: If Fedor Emelianenko is not the best Heavyweight in Mixed Martial Arts history, who is?
So I think it’s only appropriate that we create a list of all the possible candidates. With a list of all contenders, we can look at their respective careers and run a side-by-side comparison. Each person can decide for themselves who they believe is the greatest MMA Heavyweight ever.
The minimum standards to qualify for consideration are simple enough:
1.) They must have either been a UFC Champion or they must have beaten a former UFC Champion.
2.) They must have been a champion in some fashion within a strong MMA promotion at some point in their career.
3.) They must have fought at heavyweight for a significant portion of their career.
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Ken Shamrock -- 27 Wins. 13 Losses. 2 Draws.
Qualifications: Ken was the first ever UFC Superfight Champion. While this certainly was a somewhat thrown together championship title, he defended and/or reclaimed the Superfight title three times.
How that championship title was won or lost was not very clear in those days, but it was the only perpetual championship title the UFC had in place during the prime years of Ken Shamrock's career. Ken is also the former King of Pancrase.
Key wins: Defeated Bas Rutten twice. Also defeated Maurice Smith, Dan Severn, and Kimo Leopoldo.
Key losses: Royce Gracie, Dan Severn, Minoru Suzuki twice and Masakatsu Funaki. Later in his career, and certainly when Ken was well past his prime years, Ken lost to Kazuyuki Fujita, Don Frye, Tito Ortiz three times, Rich Franklin, Kazushi Sakuraba and Robert Berry.
Case for Ken Shamrock as the greatest ever: Ken’s late career losses are a pretty big distraction from his earlier accomplishments. There is no doubt that Ken is nowhere close to being the “World Most Dangerous Man” today, and he hasn’t been for a long time.
But the younger Ken Shamrock who dominated the sport in the 1990's is easily one of the greatest MMA fighters in the history of the sport. Ken is the only man to beat Bas Rutten twice. He is also the only man to ever fight Rutten who never lost to him.
Shamrock dominated the UFC while this sport was still in it's infancy. His three Superfight victories are the stuff of legend.
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Mark Coleman -- 16 Wins. 10 Losses.
Qualifications: Mark won the UFC tournament twice and was the first ever UFC Heavyweight Champion. Mark Coleman was also the first ever Pride FC tournament champion.
Key wins: Don Frye twice, Dan Severn, Kazuyuki Fujita, Igor Vovchanchyn, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.
Key losses: Maurice Smith, Pete Williams, Pedro Rizzo, Nobuhiko Takada, Antônio Rodrigo "Big-Nog" Nogueira, Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipović, Fedor Emelianenko (twice), Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Randy Couture.
Case for Mark Coleman as the greatest ever: Coleman is a fighter who has seen a lot of ups and downs through his career. One of the truly great attributes Mark possesses–he has demonstrated the ability to resurrect his career when it seemed to be over.
He has remained competitive well into his 40s and that is a noteworthy accomplishment, too. The biggest hurdle in the way of claiming that Mark Coleman is the greatest ever is quite simple: He’s lost over one third of his fights.
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Bas Rutten – 28 wins. 4 losses. 1 Draw.
Qualifications: Bas Rutten is the former UFC Heavyweight Champion and also has wins over former UFC champions Maurice Smith, Frank Shamrock and Kevin Randleman. He is also the former King of Pancrase.
Key wins: Minoru Suzuki twice, Maurice Smith, Frank Shamrock twice, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Kevin Randleman.
Key losses: Ken Shamrock twice, Frank Shamrock once, Masakatsu Funaki.
Case for Bas Rutten as the greatest ever: All of Bas Rutten’s losses came very early in his career. One can easily make the case that these early setbacks made him a better fighter in the long run.
Bas Rutten is the owner of the second longest unbroken win-streak in MMA today, holding 21 wins in a row. Because he has retired from the sport, this unbeaten streak will probably never be broken.
Within that 21 fight blitz, Rutten beat future UFC champion Maurice Smith twice, avenged his earlier losses to Frank Shamrock and Masakatsu Funaki, won the King of Pancrase title, and finished off his career by beating Kevin Randleman to become the UFC Heavyweight Champion.
Injuries sustained in training for his next fight brought an abrupt end to the brilliant career of “El Guapo.” The fact that his career ended on such an unprecedented win streak easily makes Bas Rutten one of the great MMA fighters ever.
One could easily stake the claim that Rutten would have dominated for years to come if his career had not been ended by injury. He was possibly the best ever.
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Randy Couture -- 18 wins, 10 losses.
Qualifications: Randy Couture won the UFC 13 Heavyweight Tournament, is the three-time UFC Heavyweight Champion and the two-time UFC Light Heavyweight Champion.
Key wins: Maurice Smith, Jeremy Horn, Kevin Randleman, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Pedro Rizzo twice, Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell, Vitor Belfort twice, Tim Silvia, Gabriel Gonzaga, Mark Coleman.
Key Losses: Valentijn Overeem, Josh Barnett, Ricco Rogriguez, Vitor Belfort once, Chuck Liddell twice, Brock Lesnar, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.
Case for Randy Couture: Like Muhammed Ali before him, Randy Couture can be beaten but he always comes back stronger and better than ever. He has reclaimed the title “UFC Champion” again and again.
Overall, he has been tournament champion once and UFC Champion five times. His win/loss record looks terrible until we consider that 16 of his 28 fights were all title fights.
Is that enough for us to overlook his 10 losses and legitimately claim that Randy Couture is the Greatest Heavyweight of All Time? It’s certainly debatable.
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Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Big-Nog) – 33 wins. 5 losses. 1 draw. 1 no contest.
Qualifications: Former Interim UFC Heavyweight Champion. Former Pride FC Heavyweight Champion. Rings tournament champion. Big-Nog holds wins over former UFC Champions Mark Coleman, Ricco Rogriguez, Josh Barnett, Tim Sylvia and Randy Couture.
Key Wins: Valentijn Overeem twice, Mark Coleman, Heath Herring three times, Jeremy Horn, Bob Sapp, Semmy Schilt, Dan Henderson, Ricco Rodriguez, Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipović, Sergei Kharitonov, Fabricio Werdum, Josh Barnett, Tim Sylvia, Randy Couture.
Key Losses: Dan Henderson, Fedor Emelianenko twice, Josh Barnett, Frank Mir.
Case for Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira: Simply looking at his record and then looking at the quality of opponents that Nogueira has beaten, there is little room for doubt that this man is one of the greatest Heavyweights to ever compete in MMA.
And while his recent losses to Frank Mir and Cain Velasquez may have signaled the end to the glory days of Minotauro, his overall resume of fights and wins is incredible.
The biggest hurdle to overcome if you want to claim that Big-Nog is the greatest ever are his two losses to Fedor Emelianenko. Those losses remain his only unavenged losses to this day.
Big-Nog eventually avenged every other loss in his career. (Mir and Velasquez are too recent obviously.) Josh Barnett and Dan Henderson are both good examples of this.
Nogueira’s win percentage against the best fighters in the world makes a very strong case for his place among the most legendary mixed martial arts fighters ever.
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Tim Sylvia – 25 Wins. 6 Losses.
Qualifications: Two time UFC Heavyweight Champion.
Key Wins: Ricco Rodriguez, Gan McGee, Andrei Arlovski twice, Brandon Vera, and Jeff Monson.
Key Losses: Frank Mir, Andrei Arlovski, Randy Couture, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Fedor Emelianenko.
Case for Tim Sylvia: When the “Maine-iac” stormed onto the UFC scene with an unbeaten record of 16 wins and 0 losses. Timmy is proabaly the most proficient knockout artist to ever hold the UFC Heavyweight Title, with 17 of his 25 wins coming by KO.
There is little doubt that he was the most dominant Heavyweight in the UFC from 2003 to 2007, and that’s quite and impressive run.
His rival for domination of the UFC within that time period was Andrei Arlovski and Tim Sylvia won two of their three fights.
The case for Timmy is weakened by unavenged losses to Randy Couture, Frank Mir and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, but it should be pointed out that only world-class elite MMA Heavyweights ever beat the Maine-iac in the UFC. Losing to Fedor Emelianenko falls into the same category.
His loss to Ray Mercer last year has a lot of fans doubting that Timmy is still relevant in this sport. But there is no doubt that he once was the greatest fighter in the UFC, and one of the best MMA Heavyweights of all time.
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Andrei Arlovski – 15 Wins. 7 Losses.
Qualifications: Former UFC Heavyweight Champion.
Key Wins: Tim Sylvia, Paul Buentello, Fabricio Werdum Ben Rothwell, Roy Nelson.
Key Losses: Ricco Rodriguez, Pedro Rizzo, Tim Sylvia twice, Fedor Emelianenko, Brett Rogers.
Case for Andrei Arlovski: The Pitbull has a shorter resume than most of the contenders for “greatest Heavyweight ever” but it must be acknowledged that 2002 to 2008 he was dominant a dominant fighter in the UFC.
In that span of time in the UFC, he only ever lost to Tim Sylvia. Everyone else the UFC put in front of Andrei he destroyed.
Andrei Arlovski is probably second only to Tim Sylvia as a knockout artist among UFC champions. 11 of his 15 wins came by KO. But unlike the Maine-iac, Andrei was a better all-around fighter, as demonstrated by the fact that he has never been submitted in his entire career.
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Josh Barnett – 24 Wins. 5 Losses.
Qualifications: Former UFC Heavyweight Champion.
Key Wins: Dan Severn, Gan McGee, Semmy Schilt twice, Randy Couture, Aleksander Emelianenko, Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, Pedro Rizzo, Jeff Monson, Gilvert Yvel.
Key Losses: Pedro Rizzo, Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic three times, Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira.
Case for Josh Barnett: The Baby-Faced Assassin has proven himself to be one of the most terrifying forces in MMA history. He handily beat Randy Couture for the UFC Title. He has destroyed one legendary fighter after another, after another.
The two banes of Josh Barnett’s career are Mirko Cro-Cop and Steroids. Barnett has tested positive at two of the most publicly humiliating moments possible: The first time was right after beating Randy Couture for the UFC belt.
The second time was right before his scheduled fight with Fedor Emelianenko, which probably put the final nail in the coffin of Affliction as a fighting promotion.
At worst, Barnett splits the series one and one with any man who has ever beaten him in a fight. All fighters but Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic that is. Mirko is the only the man who has beaten Barnett more than once, and Cro-Cop did it three times.
Mirko has clearly lost his edge as a fighter, so any attempt by Barnett to avenge his losses to Cro-Cop in the future would only be hollow victories if Barnett wins. Any hypothetical rematch would pit Barnett against a bare shadow of the man the Cro-Cop once was.
Truthfully, the Baby Faced Assassin just might be the baddest Heavyweight fighter in all of MMA today. But can he stay off the juice for long enough to actually prove it?
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Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic – 26 Wins. 7 Losses. 2 Draws. 1 No Contest.
Qualifications: Defeated UFC Champions Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman and Josh Barnett. Pride FC 2006 Openweight Grand Prix Champion.
Key Wins: Kazuyuki Fujita twice, Heath Herring, Igor Vovchanchyn, Aleksander Emelianenko, Josh Barnett three times, Kevin Randleman, Mark Coleman, Ikuhisa Minowa, Wanderlei Silva, Hong-man Choi, Bob Sapp.
Key Losses: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Kevin Randleman, Fedor Emelianenko, Mark Hunt, Gabriel Gonzaga, Cheick Kongo, Junior dos Santos.
Case for Mirko Filipovic: If Tim Sylvia is the most lethal knockout artist champion in UFC history, Mirko "Cro-Cop" was the same thing in spades in Pride FC. In Cro-Cop’s prime, I would rate him as the superior striker and Tim Sylvia. He's also a better over-all fighter than Tim.
From 2001 to 2006 Mirko terrorized the Heavyweight ranks of Pride FC. In that stretch, there were only two fighters that handed him losses that were ultimately never avenged: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Fedor Emelianenko.
Cro-Cop’s trademark head-kicks and powerful punches probably ended the prime of the career of Wanderlei Silva in 2006.
Ironically, less than a year later Gabriel Gonzaga knocked him out with a head-kick of his own–probably the most gruesome knockout in UFC history. Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic has only been a shadow of the fighter he once was since the day that Gonzaga knocked him out. Mirko is certainly one of the most dominant fighters in MMA history.
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Frank Mir – 13 Wins. 4 Losses.
Qualifications: Former UFC Heavyweight Champion. Former Interim Heavyweight Champion.
Key Wins: Pete Williams, David "Tank" Abbott, Tim Sylvia, Brock Lesnar, Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, Cheick Kongo.
Key Losses: Ian Freeman, Marcio Cruz, Brandon Vera, Brock Lesnar.
Case for Frank Mir: Frank Mir just might be the greatest Heavyweight submissions artist in the world today. A strong case can be made for both Mir and Big-Nog for that honor.
Mir’s career can be evenly divided in two parts: Before the motorcycle accident and after his recovery.
Pre-injury, Frank Mir followed up thrilling submission victories over Pete Williams and Tank Abbott with and even more impressive submission win. In a fight for the Heavyweight Belt, he locked an armbar onto the champion Tim Sylvia and proceeded to break Sylvia's arm to take the Heavyweight Title.
That same year, on Sept. 17, 2004, Mir was knocked off his motorcycle by a car. This accident broke Mir's femur in two places and tore all the ligaments in his knee. It is a miracle that Frank Mir ever fought in MMA again.
In his first four fights after his returning to the UFC, Mir went 2-2 racking up embarrassing losses to Marcio Cruz and Brandon Vera.
Then Frank Mir welcomed Brock Lesnar to the UFC. This stunning submission victory over the man who would soon become champion resurrected Frank Mir's MMA career.
There is still plenty of uncertainty about how well Mir stacks up to against the top-most elite MMA fighters in the world, but right now Frank Mir is two victories away from being acknowledged as the best Heavyweight in the UFC and arguably the best Heavyweight in the world today. All he has to do is beat Shane Carwin and Brock Lesnar.
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Brock Lesnar – 4 Wins. 1 Loss.
Qualification: Current UFC Heavyweight Champion.
Key Wins: Frank Mir, Randy Couture.
Key Losses: Frank Mir.
Case for Brock Lesnar: Brock is certainly one of the most physically gifted champions that the UFC has ever seen. His sheer strength is terrifying enough, but he is also surprisingly quick and agile, with very real power in his XXXXL gloved hands.
He may very well be the best pure wrestler the UFC Heavyweight Division has ever seen.
Brock has beaten two legends of the sport, and this is commendable, but it is extremely difficult to make the case for him as “the greatest Heavyweight in the history of MMA.” He’s only fought five times and Lesnar already lost one of those fights. Brock might one day be widely known as the best ever, but he needs to win a lot of fights before anyone can legitimately make a that claim.
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Fedor Emelianenko – 32 Wins. 1 Loss. 1 No Contest.
Qualification: Former Pride FC Heavyweight Champion. Has beaten UFC Champions Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman, Tim Sylvia, Andrei Arlovski.
Key Wins: Renato Sobral, Semmy Schilt, Heath Herring, Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira twice, Mark Coleman twice, Kevin Randleman, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Mirko “Cro-Cop” Filipović, Zuluzinho (Wagner da Conceição Martins), Tim Sylvia, Andrei Arlovski, Brett Rogers.
Keys Losses: Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (Note: This loss is extremely controversial. In the Rings promotion, elbows were illegal. Kohsaka opened a cut on Fedor with an elbow strike and the doctor stopped the fight. Ordinarily this would have led to a disqualification loss for Kohsaka, but the elbow strike was deemed accidental and the victory was given to Kohsaka – mostly to ensure that there was a victor that was fit to proceed to the next round of the tournament. This is Fedor’s only loss in his 34 fight career.)
Case for Fedor Emelianenko: Making the case that Fedor is the Greatest Heavyweight in the History of MMA is probably the easiest case to make among all possible contenders.
He’s beaten plenty of MMA legends, including five UFC Heavyweight Champions and five fighters from this list. With the exception of the controversial loss noted above, Fedor has never lost a fight. In the rematch with Kohsaka, Fedor absolutely destroyed TK.
Virtually undefeated after 34 fights – that is unprecedented in MMA history. He is on a record setting 28 fight win streak. And over the years, one thing has remained constant: Nobody has figured out how to beat The Last Emperor. Until somebody actually beats him, it will be impossible to claim that anyone is truly better than Fedor.
The one valid argument against Fedor is a significant one: Because of his stubborn refusal to fight in the UFC, Fedor Emelianenko is no longer competing with the best Heavyweights in the world. In Pride FC, Fedor faced off against the best in the world.
Since Pride died, all the best fighters in the world have found their way into the UFC. The best new prospects in the world are also fighting for the UFC. If you are truly a fighter, you fight to win. You are on a mission to prove that you are the best in the world.
If Fedor wants to prove he is the best in the world right now, he needs to be fighting guys like Lesnar, Velasquez, Mir, Dos Santos, and Carwin. These guys are relevant right now. They’ve proven themselves. If Fedor is not in the game to prove he is the best in the world, why is he still fighting?
If he has nothing left to prove, then he should retire and that should be the end of it. By continuing to fight in MMA while staying in the minor leagues of the sport, Fedor is tarnishing his legacy.
But ultimately, somebody has to actually beat Fedor in convincing fashion before anyone can lay claim to his throne as Best Heavyweight in the world. And even after that day comes, Fedor still has the strongest case for Best Heavyweight Ever without exception.
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