Blog Poll Results Review - Who Fedor Should Fight

It looks like out of the 58 votes made so far, the result is obvious. Even though some of us truly believe that Fedor does not have to join the UFC and trade Vadim Finkelstein for Dana White, 50% of you believe Fedor should fight Brock Lesnar.

Brock Lesnar is the #2 fighter in the world. He is the UFC champion, champion of the organization that has four out of five top heavyweights in the world. Brock is also as many say a great big threat to Fedor and M1 Global/Vadim Finkelstein.

The second most popular vote is Alistair Overeem and I am not surprised. Overeem is in Strikeforce and wants to fight Fedor. He also challenges Fedor and says his management have been evading him. Why? Because they are genuinely worried Fedor may actually lose to this guy vs. Fabricio Werdum who most agree does not have the skill set to defeat Fedor.

If you try to be objective about this, the following logic clearly does not work. Vadim Finkelstein keeps saying that he would rather have Fedor fight Barnett then Overeem. Why? Because Overeem is a "steroid bully". But the argument breaks down when he says that he would rather have Fedor face Barnett. But Barnett can't fight in the US because of steroid abuse. It is very convenient also because this way Fedor can't fight neither Barnett or Overeem. Huh!

The truth is though, if Overeem is not a candidate, then Fedor will fight someone not in the top-10. Antonio Silva does not deserve to fight Fedor and there is no one else. All the top fighters are in the UFC and Fedor has to go there.

Vadim Finkelstein and MMA

There are many controversial personalities in the young sport of MMA that is only starting to evolve and is growing in many countries from USA to Japan and as far away from Brazil as Russia. Dana White and the UFC have secured their dominance in the US market and are now expanding abroad while the old Pride remains have risen to form the organization that is now known as Dream FC that features some of the old greats like Sakuraba and Yoshida as well as the new breed of fighters like Gegard Mousasi and Shinya Aoki.

Fedor Emelianenko is a phenomenon that appeared in the late Rings promotion fights and then exploded on to the Pride arena defeating the likes of Nogueira and Mirko Cro Cop among others in a colourful career that lasted between 2000-2005. Those were the years when Vadim Finkelstein took over the management of Fedor and the troubles really began to emerge.

Late into this part of Fedor's career it became clear that the talent of the Pride Heavyweight Champion is phenomenal but also that the team around hin are careful in selecting fights, often choosing to mix it with some weaker, one-dimensional and clearly underdog opponents. October 2005 marked the end of this part of the career and started to be a stage for Fedor's domination of underdog fighters who had no business fighting the best fighter in the world at the time. After the victory over Mirko that year, Fedor fought Zuluzhinho and later defeated Mark Coleman for the second time.

Pride was clearly in its final months of existance and it is understandable that a weaker opponent can sometimes be chosen to please the fans that may demand a show such as Zuluzhinho. There was no such popular support however for Zulu or Mark and therefore there was no logic to this fight.

If you take March 2006 Heavyweight Rankings, under Mirko and Nogueira there was Andrei Arlovski, Kharitonov, Aleks Emelianenko and Fabricio Werdum, all of which were great fighters that Fedor could have met. Instead he chose to fight Zuluzhinho and Mark Coleman.

In February 2007, the top ranked were again Fedor, Cro Cop and Nogueira but under them the positions changed. Josh Barnett, Tim Sylvia, Brandon Vera and Arlovski featured as the next best. Who did Fedor fight? He fought Mark Hunt and Matt Lindland. At the time MMA Ranks.com rated Hunt as #1 fighter in the Super Heavyweight Division that does not exist. Moreover Hunt did not achieve anything special to justify such a position in the rankings. Matt Lindland was a middleweight ranked number eight in the world. Hardly someone who should have been fighting against apparently the greatest heavyweight in the world.

The contrast is all the more visible when you look at the guys that Mirko Cro Cop fought during these two years. Firstly he defeated the highly rated Josh Barnett who featured #3 in the world in 2007 and thereafter signed with the UFC to face Eddie Sanchez and Gabriel Gonzaga.

Fedor's opponents the following years were no more impressive perhaps except Arlovski who still featured as a top fighter in the rankings. The win over Rogers, although impressive, was not a top-10 win, not nearly.

Vadim Finkelstein in this played a decisive role. His demands for co-promotion with Bodog left him unsatisfied and when Affliction came along, he took this as his moment to convert Fedor's image into cash flow for M1, which is what he did, but the scheme would not last.

The economics of co-promotion with M1 simply does not make any sense and while Fedor can be marketed to the US audiences with moderate success in Strikeforce, gap in the quality of opponents raises serious questions whether Fedor legitimately can be considered the number one heavyweight in the world not to mention pound best.

If Fedor and Vadim Finkelstein really want to fight, and make fights that the fans want to see, then they need to sign with the UFC. The best fighters are there and people don't want to see Werdum or Rogers fight Fedor. They want to see Lesnar vs Fedor badly. Thats what Vadim needs to give to the fans. Here is a link to the poll on who Fedor should fight next.

Fedor Emelianenko Ranked Number Four Heavyweight in the World

Fedor Emelianenko and his M1 friends have been picking fights for years. After a scare with Brett Rogers last November, we have not seen any action apart from endless renegotiating for more money and marketing.

At the end of the day, its not just whether you win or not, but who you fight. You can't just avoid fighting the best for five years and then say you are the best in the world. Hell, I could go and fight some people who have never trained a day in their life and win every time. That does not make me the best in the world.

Look at the poll I have running so far. We have 25 votes of which 60% are for Lesnar and only two votes for Fabricio Werdum. Now I am a huge Fabricio Werdum fan and I would rather see this fight than have Fedor do sparring in Stariy Oskol all summer, but beating Werdum does not make Fedor the best in the world.

You have to fight top-5 ranked fighters regularly to be called the best. I don't care if Fedor fights twice or even once a year. I don't like it but at the end of the day thats what he may want, but to say this crap that the guy is the best in the world when he fights guys like Werdum is still not good enough. Sherdog and other guys must realize this now and make an adjustment. The ratings must not be biased and we need to be fair to every fighter. There must be a fair system based on which a fighter is ranked at a certain spot. If he does not get so many points over a certain period but still wins the fights, he should be moved down.

Say Tim Sylvia was winning each fight but was fighting guys outside the top five all the time. Then you had guys like JDS, Carwin, Lesnar and Velsaquez all winning their fights. Tim Sylvia would still have been champion of UFC if he did not face tough guys like MIr and Fedor included. He stepped up and fought top-5 fighters.

M1-Global can shut up about Fedor being the best if he does not fight the best. When Sherdog and others do move Fedor down, this will benefit MMA enormously. M1 would realize that they cannot carry on the way they do marketing to fans over the world that they have the best fighter. They will have to make a deal. Everyone wants a deal. Dana White does. Vadim does not and this is the problem.

Sherdog Move Fedor Down!!!