MMA Analysts Fall in Line for Fedor

Some of the MMA analysts are starting to fall in line for Fedor and Strikeforce.

Jake Rossen, a content provider for Sherdog and ESPN recently showed unquestioning support for Emelianenko's move to Strikeforce.

He compares the heavyweight rosters of the UFC and Strikeforce by looking at the possible contenders to Fedor.

Couture is too old, claims Rossen.  And furthermore, Frank Mir isn't a credible match for Fedor since he was smashed by Lesnar.

Rossen goes on to say that there are only really three fighters in the UFC worth Fedor's time, those being Brock Lesnar, Cain Velasquez, and Shane Carwin.

Strikeforce can do just as well, Rossen contends, as they can match Fedor with Alistair Overeem, Brett Rogers, or, as he puts it, "some kind of wild card entrant: Bobby Lashley, Blagoi Ivanov, perhaps even Josh Barnett."

Luckily for Rossen, he only had to type these words, because clearly most sane people wouldn't be able to say them aloud and keep a straight face.

Couture recently put up a good fight against Lesnar, and is coming in as a betting favorite as former Fedor nemesis Antonio "Minotauro" Nogueira. Should Couture win, he might even be in line for another title shot.  Captain America is clearly not unmarketable.

And while Frank Mir did get smashed by Lesnar, that is not really anything to be ashamed of.

Boasting the only stoppage win over Nogueira, a win over Lesnar, a famous bone-breaking victory over Tim Sylvia, and some of the flashiest heavyweight submissions of all time, Frank Mir is closer to a spot in the UFC hall of fame than he is to being irrelevant.

Furthermore, Junior Dos Santos, who knocked out Fabrico Werdum, must also be considered a viable UFC contender. If gets past Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic at UFC 103, he'll have wins over two of the top heavyweights in the world.

Compare all of this to Alistair Overeem, who has lost to Werdum as and nine other guys, and Brett Rogers, who has only one significant victory, that over the glass-jawed Andrei Arlovski.

The entire idea of "some kind of wildcard entrant" is pretty ridiculous as well.  Bobby Lashley has already stated his intention of pursuing a career in the UFC, and Josh Barnett is nothing more than an embarrassment to the sport.

Frankly, to even entertain the idea of putting Barnett in a fight against Fedor now after the multiple steroid tests makes me want to vomit.

In my opinion, every one of Lesnar, Carwin, Velasquez, Dos Santos, Couture, and Mir would be both more challenging and more intriguing than any of Alistair Overeem, Rogers, or anyone else Strikeforce could sign.

Rossen claims that Fedor's legacy will be fine after this signing with Strikeforce.

But the way many fans will look at the situation is this: Fedor turned down a lot of money from the UFC to go off and fight weaker competition for less money.

Even worse, given that the negotiations took only a week, it seems like Fedor's camp didn't even try to get a deal done with the UFC.

Personally, I still blame M-1 president Vadim Finkelchtein more than I blame Fedor, but the bitter taste in my mouth remains.

What makes this even worse is that MMA media people like Jake Rossen have swallowed this thing whole, rather than admit that Fedor has missed the boat.