On the night that Barnett and Crocop would meet for the third time, Barnett had already fought Nogueira to a three round split decision victory, while Cro Cop won a first round knockout victory against Wanderlei Silva. Barnett’s war of attrition with Nogueira didn’t do him any favors against Cro Cop, who quickly beat him into insensibility, leaving Barnett 0-3 against the Croatian.
Yet, whereas Barnett has improved tremendously as a fighter, defeating top level opponents and earning three solid victories in 2008 alone (Barnett even managed to avenge his first professional loss to Pedro Rizzo with an impressive second round knockout at Affliction‘s inaugural event in July), Crocop’s name has become synonymous with has-been.
Recently, when he’s not being defeated by the likes of Cheick Kongo, and nearly escaping decapitation by Gabriel Gonzaga, Crocop is living the good life in Japan, fighting inferior fighters that are handpicked for him by Japan’s DREAM organization.
If anything, Barnett’s losses to Cro Cop were something of a blessing in disguise, in as much as they taught him how best to deal with one of MMA’s most powerful strikers; a skill that will certainly help him to survive, and ultimately defeat, his next opponent, Andrei “The Pitbull” Arlovski.
While there is no question that Arlovski is a top five contender and a worthy opponent for Barnett, he simply hasn’t fought the same level of competition as the Baby-Faced Assassin. Having lost twice to Tim Sylvia, once to Ricco Rodriguez and Pedro Rizzo, Arlovski’s most impressive victories are against Sylvia (although Arlovski holds a record of 1-2 against the “Maine-iac”), Fabricio Werdum, and a rugged Ben Rothwell.
The result of the Barnett/Arlovski match set to take place in January will undoubtedly result in yet another submission victory for Barnett, who has won his fights with everything from a triangle choke to a flying heel hook. Then, with Arlovski out of the way, Barnett will be free to challenge the man whom many MMA fans have been long awaiting him to fight: Fedor “The Last Emperor” Emelianenko.
This fight, if and when it takes places, will undoubtedly be the greatest MMA chess match in recent history.
Still, there are those who would argue that Fedor simply cannot be beaten, that he would run roughshod over Barnett, defeating him in much the same way as he defeated fellow grapplers Coleman and Randleman. Yet, in all fairness, it should be noted that Barnett’s grappling background is far different from that of “The Hammer” or “The Monster,” both of whom are excellent practitioners of freestyle wrestling.
Rather, Barnett’s enigmatic style of fighting, known only as “catch wrestling,” is so unorthodox and little used by mainstream fighters that it is safe to say that Fedor has never encountered a catch wrestler in the course of his career.
Placing a heavy emphasis on submissions, rather than typical ground-and-pound hooliganism, Barnett will be relatively safe from Fedor’s dreaded armbar; a submission Fedor often applies from the bottom, while his opponents are attempting to pummel him (see Coleman vs. Fedor pt. 2).
13 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete