Strikeforce: 5 Reasons Fedor Emelianenko Has Lost 3 in a Row

As likely the most accomplished heavyweight mixed martial artist of his generation, and perhaps that will ever compete, Fedor Emelianenko is a name synonymous with greatness. He’s a humble man and a great champion who spent years atop the sport.

Unfortunately, as is the case for any great athlete, the athletic prime passes. With three straight losses following 28 fights where no one could topple him, the great Fedor suddenly looks human. While no one knows what the future holds for the legendary Russian, there are reasons that he’s mired in his current slide.

Reasons that include...

5. Fighting Better Competition

While no one could ever dispute Fedor’s remarkable performances against the best in the world during his time with Pride FC, he went into a pretty deep spiral in terms of competition once Pride folded.

Beating up on a punch-drunk Andrei Arlovski, a fat Tim Sylvia or an inept Hong Man Choi is pretty easy when you’re used to staring down guys like Mirko Cro Cop or Minotauro Nogueira at their best.

Upon his move to North America under the Strikeforce banner, that stretch of what basically amounted to exhibition matches caught up to him. Fabricio Werdum is no joke, Bigfoot Silva is a nightmare for anyone at heavyweight and Dan Henderson is every bit as legendary and decorated as Emelianenko himself. That step back in competition has certainly contributed to his recent troubles.

4. Age

As stated previously, every man’s prime passes him by. With Fedor, as has been the case with most of the Pride legends, his expiration date looks to be upon us.

Most of the men who went to battle in Japan, often multiple times in one night, have seen a considerable decline in skill right around the age of 32, which is three or four years ahead of what’s become the norm for mixed martial artists who competed in North America for the bulk of their careers.

Fedor is no different, though he probably had the farthest to fall. Years of taking beatings so violent you thought he was a cyborg just for surviving—beatings that invariably would end with his hand somehow raised in victory—have taken their toll. You can’t be 27 forever; at 34, Fedor is not what he was six or seven years ago.

3. Questionable Career Choices

It’s no secret that Fedor-the-man and Fedor-the-name have grown further apart from one another in recent years, and that’s due to some serious career mistakes. With the promotional muscle of M-1 Global behind him, Fedor’s humility and likability have often been overshadowed by the bickering and backroom dealings of his management.

They passed up on the UFC because they wanted to piggyback through co-promotion and line their own pockets. They kept Fedor inactive, or near enough to it, for incredibly long stretches just to gouge out a few extra dollars. When Fedor spoke of retirement, rumblings came out of Russia that they pushed him back into the cage with dollar signs in their eyes.

For a simple man who still lives that way despite his wealth and status, his involvement with M-1 has been troubling—his willingness to go along with the bad advice and poor choices they’ve made for him is, too.

In general, the past five years or so have been littered with questionable career choices, and they’re starting to show on his competition record.

2. Carelessness

Even in the midst of the slide, glimpses of the old Fedor have been evident. However, perhaps as much as anything, those glimpses have been immediately erased by a carelessness in the cage that he rarely exhibited—or rarely got exposed for exhibiting—during his prime.

Against Werdum, he clipped the big Brazilian with a punch that he thought hurt him. Instead of calculating his next move, he plunged into the guard of one of the best heavyweight jiu-jitsu men alive—one who just happens to be known for pulling guard or baiting opponents to the floor. Seconds later, Fedor was tapping and the world was in shock.

Returning against Bigfoot, Fedor repeatedly charged in against his massive opponent with almost no regard for his own safety. Scrambled exchanges are an Emelianenko trademark—wading in, looking for that massive right hand—but against Silva he could have been swinging a baseball bat and not put him down. Those scrambles allowed for a range in which Bigfoot could drag Fedor down and use his size advantage and ruthless ground-and-pound to batter him. He did. Two in a row.

When battling Henderson, a frenetic pace and a series of wild exchanges had Fedor primed to end the slide. However, when he knocked Henderson down and went to finish, he once again miscalculated his positioning and also didn’t account for just how hard it is to stop the Team Quest founder, giving his man the chance to slip out the back door and land a perfect right hand. People generally don’t get up from that right hand, and Fedor was no different.

In all of his recent losses, there have been miscalculations and carelessness to different degrees. Every time, he’s been made to pay.

1. The Game Has Changed

Probably the biggest factor in all of this is that the game has changed. MMA is not what MMA was when Fedor Emelianenko was on top of the food chain.

The athletes of today are training constantly in a host of disciplines and with a list of trainers as long as your leg. Fedor still spends the vast majority of his time in Stary Oskol, training with the same people and working out the same way he always has. Sure, he’ll travel somewhere like Golden Glory for a week, or news that he’s training with his brother again will surface, but is that really enough? Recent trends suggest not.

It’s an uphill battle for Fedor—at his age, with his mileage and with the type of people currently around him—to get back to the top of the sport. Realistically, it’s a long shot for that to happen. However, if he plans on fighting on and trying to reclaim some of his lost aura, he needs to evolve with the game.

New training partners, new techniques, new coaches—all would help. A refusal to make such changes will just continue to belittle the legacy of one of the most honourable and genuinely likable champions that combat sports has ever seen—and he deserves better than that.