Fedor Knocks Out Arlovski, The Aftermath for the UFC and the Heavyweight Picture

The WAMMA heavyweight title was put on the line last night by Fedor Emelianenko, going up against the former UFC heavyweight champion and No. 1 heavyweight contender Andrei Arlovski.

This fight was one of the most anticipated fights in MMA for 2009 because of what was at stake for Fedor Emelianenko.

Obviously, the B.J. Penn vs. St. Pierre fight and the Mir vs. Lesnar fight are going to have a lot of hype behind them as well, but this fight was definitely up there.

Many fans and analysts were torn on who would win the battle.

Arlovski has excellent boxing skills and many thought if the fight stayed standing, Arlovski could win by picking Fedor apart and knocking him out or grinding out the decision.

Fedor, on the other hand, doesn’t have the most technical boxing, he is up to 30 wins and with one technical loss aside, Fedor is pretty much undefeated.

Fedor does possess knockout power, has an incredibly strong chin, and on the ground he can submit the best in the business.

The fight started and Arlovski came out to keep the fight standing. Arlovski was landing 50 percent of his punches and up until near four minutes it looked like Arlovski was winning the round.

Fedor was only landing 38 percent of his punches and he looked like he was having a lot of trouble dealing with Arlovski’s superior striking ability.

At around 3:40 in the first round, Arlovski landed a kick and sent Fedor back into the corner.

Arlovski got greedy and instead of picking Fedor apart as he had been doing he tried to go for a flying knee as Fedor bounced off the ropes.

As ugly as Fedor’s striking looks, he swung a right hook as Arlovski was flying through the air and caught him on the chin knocking him out for the win.

One concern I had at the conclusion of this fight was Arlovski's chin.

In six career losses for Arlovski, five have been by knockout. Although Fedor has some power, the shot he caught Arlovski with wasn't something that would have necessarily put some other heavyweight guys out cold like Arlovski.

The problem for Fedor was the fact that he has never fought in the UFC. He hasn’t fought guys like Frank Mir, Randy Couture, and Brock Lesnar all UFC heavyweights who are in the top 10.

Since Fedor hasn’t fought in the UFC, fans who are sceptical of Fedor have said he can’t be the best until he fights UFC heavyweight champions who are in their prime.

With the win over Arlovski, Fedor has fought three former UFC heavyweight champions and won.

Back in Fedor’s Pride days, he beat Nogueira twice via unanimous Decision. Nogueira was the UFC heavy weight champ up until losing to Mir at UFC 92. Just this past summer, Fedor beat former another UFC Champion Tim Sylvia in 37 seconds.

Up next people and analysts are expecting Fedor to take on No. 3 contender Josh Barnett. Many questioned Josh Barnett’s courage in the past because every time Barnett was offered Fedor, he seemed to find a reason to turn it down.

Something I wasn’t aware of before last night was the fact that Fedor and Barnett are both good friends. Each fighter in their postfight interview stated the fact that they were good friends and Fedor even seemed to dodge the question about a possible Barnett fight.

Maybe the two are close enough that they aren’t completely sold on the idea of fighting each other. Fans and media will have to wait and see what unfolds.

Although many people were questioning Fedor before this fight, many more people will be questioning the UFC heavyweight division now that Fedor put Arlovski and Sylvia away so quickly.

Dana White in recent interviews was receiving questions on whether he thought Fedor was the best heavyweight in the world.

In one response, White basically said he didn’t think Fedor was the best in the world because he would need to be fighting at least three to four times a year to get that title. White also said he would be pulling for Arlovski in this fight because he used to be one of his guys.

The media and fans must be anxiously awaiting a response from White after seeing the results of last night’s fight.

It is going to be awfully difficult for White to deny the fact that Fedor right now is the best heavyweight in the world and arguably the best pound for pound fighter in the world as well.

White has expressed his frustration in the past about trying to sign Fedor and that Fedor’s camp does not seem co-operative.

In fact it has been so hard for White to sign Fedor that he even lost his No. 1 heavyweight Randy Couture because he wanted a fight with Fedor. Of course, there were other reasons why Couture left, but if Fedor was there for Couture to fight, one could argue he would have stayed.

Obviously all is not lost for the UFC, they have the strongest MMA organization in the world. Frank Mir became the first fighter to finish off Nogueira, a task not even Fedor himself could manage.

Yes one could argue that Nogueira was not in top form, but the fact of the matter is that in almost all of Nogeuira’s fights he has eaten punches round after round and then magically manages to submit his opponent before the final bell.

Against Mir it was no different. Nogueira ate punches all through round one and the start of round two. However, instead of Nogeuira getting the submission, Mir knocked Nogueira out.

One could attribute this outcome to the fact that Mir is probably the next best Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu artist in the heavyweight division. Although he didn’t submit Nogeuira, he wasn’t going to let Nogueira submit him either.

Secondly, the UFC has Brock Lesnar, who shares the heavy weight title with Frank Mir.

Although Brock Lesnar has a lot to learn, he has shown the world of MMA that he is serious about the sport and with every fight he is given he comes out looking better.

Lesnar’s main assets are his size, extreme athleticism, his wrestling, and his very heavy hands. Lesnar needs to keep working on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, particularly his submission defence and boxing. Lesnar has heavy hands, but his striking is rough around the edges.

Lesnar at this point may not be ready to fight a guy like Fedor, but in the next year or so he will be and his next fight with Frank Mir will do a lot to answer that question.

Besides Josh Barnett, there aren’t many opponents left for Fedor to fight outside of the UFC. Fedor has pretty much put away any challenger that has come his way in dominating fashion.

On the other hand, the UFC heavyweight division seems to have gotten back on track with the signing of Lesnar and Nogueira, the return of Couture, a fully recovered Frank Mir and a back on track Gabriel Gonzaga.

However, with Fedor Emelianenko hanging around outside the UFC and beating all the opponents thrown his way, it is going to be pretty difficult for Dana White to claim his heavyweights are the best out there.

One of the main problems with trying to sign Fedor is the fact that he loves competing in his native fighting style of Sambo. In the UFC, it is pretty clear that you can’t compete in other fighting events while you are under contract.

So somebody is going to have to bend if Fedor is going to fight in the UFC.

Regardless, fans around the world are going to want to see Fedor fight the worlds best and after Barnett, the only guys left are in the UFC.

It is in the interest of both the UFC and Fedor Emelianenko to join forces at some point.

If Fedor signs with the UFC, the UFC will have the best heavyweights in the world. For Fedor, he will have the chance to really solidify himself as the GOAT of MMA.

Fedor isn’t getting any younger, and the UFC heavyweight division can’t get much stronger, considering they have half of the top 10 heavyweight contenders in the world.

So a message to Dana White and Fedor Emelianenko, settle your differences and make something happen by late 2009 to early 2010.