Fedor Emelianenko: The Most Dominant Athlete in the History of Mankind

To those who don't know him, his name is Fedor Emelianenko.  Many hardcore Mixed Martial Arts fans refer to him as "The Last Emperor" or "The Cyborg" of Mixed Martial Arts.  He is a decorated Sambo player and an active Mixed Martial Arts competitor from Russia.

There have been many dominating individual athletes in their respective sports such as Muhammed Ali, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky and Joe Montana.  But these athletes accomplishments can not begin to compare to the superhuman domination displayed by the man from Russia, Fedor Emelianenko.

Usually, Dominating athletes in boxing have a hard time signing on the contractual dotted line due to money. High-valued matchups are then settled when fighters are well out of their respective "primes."

This often leaves the decision in the hands of historians and media to decide who is the greatest. 

You can find many other examples like this in other sports where great athletes never meet in competition due to bad organization or set traditions, which I think is a fatal flaw in any sports entity.

Fortunately, MMA fans are consistently treated to the greatest match ups with fighters in their "prime" where this dispute can be settled where it belongs - in the ring (or octagon, if they fight in the UFC).

Most MMA combatants are signed to contractual obligations that allow the owners of the MMA company they work for to decide who and when the fighter will fight.

So marquee match ups go off without a hitch. This also shows the superiority of the sport of MMA compared to other sports in terms of bringing the most talented of their sport together to find out who is the most superior.

It is the equivalent of watching the Cleveland CAVs vs the LA Lakers every time you watch basketball or the Pittsburgh Steelers vs the New England Patriots every time you watch football.

In Mixed Martial Arts the contenders are separated from the non contenders fast.  There is no room for mediocrity, and in the hardest competitive game on the planet, Fedor is so far above the competition it is downright scary.

It occurred to me while watching an old match between Fedor and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira that society has never seen a more perfect athlete than Fedor Emelianenko. In a sport which I consider to be the toughest sport ever created MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) Fedor Emelianenko made the best of his peers all look like amateur fighters.

No athlete ever encountered stiffer competition then Fedor Emelianenko and came out so dominating.

He has 30 wins (7 knockouts, 16 submissions, 7 decisions). He had one loss in the "Rings" MMA organization, but this was due to a freak cut that occurred during a fight with Tsuyoshi Kohsaka in the year of 2000, which led to an early stoppage only 17 seconds into the fight. 

It should be noted that in 2005 Fedor had a rematch with Kohsaka and destroyed him in ironic fashion administering a cut stoppage to Kohsaka in the first round. 

This record is even more impressive when compared to other combat sports because in MMA there are no easy fights, no cans, no fights to mature as a fighter with, or to pad your stats with, each fight is extremely competitive. The fighters who fight in major organizations in MMA all have high winning percentages or they don't get contracts.

Such as Heath Herring, a top ten competitor at the time who was expected to run through Fedor and make another run at Nogueira's championship.

Unfortunately for Herring, he would soon find out that Fedor would not be a stepping stone for anyone, in the immortal words of Stephen Quadros (former commentator for the Pride Fighting Championships organization), "right now Herring is finding out there is only room for one sheriff in pride fighting championship, and right now the man packing the badge and the gun is Emelianenko Fedor." 

Fedor dominated Heath in a way that no one up to that point had, you could literally hear the sounds of the thuds of Fedor's punches cracking throughout the arena, as he smashed Heath Herrings face into human hamburger with an aggressive ground and pound technique no one had ever seen before. 

It was certainly one of the most brutal beatings I had ever seen. After one round with the Russian Cyborg Heath Herrings face was damaged so badly the doctor had to call the fight off.

This win against Heath would propel Fedor directly to a championship bout with Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira.

His win against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira for the Pride FC Heavyweight Championship only three fights into his Pride Fighting Championships career was one of the most important fights in the history of MMA.

This is so impressive because at the time Nogueira was considered to be invincible, and the greatest fighter the sport had seen up to that point. Nogueira was technically sound and could pick opponents apart on his feet or dominate opponents on the ground, this made him a perfect fighter. 

If Nogueira were to have been born in any other generation of MMA competitors he probably would have been considered the best of that generation, unfortunately he was born directly in the path of the most powerful and strategically advanced competitor the world has ever known, Fedor Emelianenko.

Fedor took advantage of Nogueira's willingness to stay in the guard position, and redefined ground and pound, displaying new techniques for all the wrestlers who were unable to solve the riddle of the guard position.

Again Fedor's arm punches cracked throughout the arena and Fedor dominated Nogueira for three rounds (one 10-minute round, two five-minute rounds) grounding and pounding Nogueira to a unanimous decision in their legendary bout.

Nogueira was beaten and stripped of his invincibility by  Emelianenko. Nogueira fights now as only a shell of his former self, but is still able to bring excitement to the Octagon in the UFC.

Fedor then went on to stop four former UFC Heavyweight champions, all under four minutes of the first round. With five former world champions defeated during his career (including Nogueira, six if you count Mark Hunt as a Kickboxing Champion), this makes Fedor Emelianenko's career arguably the most competitively dominating of any athlete in the world of sports.

Still an outstanding active competitor, Fedor may add more impressive victories to an already outstanding resume, but due to the competitive environment in Mixed Martial Arts, the quality of his opponents and the quality of his winning record, in my opinion he has already cemented his legacy as the greatest competitive athlete in the history of MMA. 

Unfortunately we do not celebrate MMA as an American tradition yet (so you will not find Fedor's face on a Wheaties box any time soon), but if you have the opportunity I would suggest that you check out some old Pride matches he had or catch one of his upcoming bouts because he is certainly the most dominant athlete in the history of mankind.