Out of the 4 GOATS, is Fedor the only one who deliberately engaged his opponents at their strengths?

[Takes_Two_To_Tango]

GSP is pretty much a safe fighter predominately through his career.

Anderson Silva stayed in his lane most of the time. Leaned on his advantageous.

Probably Jon Jones has done it a few times, but not as often and deliberate as Fedor.

And if Fedor seems the most daring and most risk taking when it comes to fighting and beating his opponents at their strengths. Does that increase his value as a fighter in the GOAT conversation or it doesn't?

What say you?

 

[mixmastermo]

Nice UFC related thread.

Honestly Sherdog should just make a Fedor centric subforum so his fans can have their circle jerks about his legacy over there. He hasn't been relevant in a long time but people seem to want to talk about him every day.

 

[Takes_Two_To_Tango]

Nice UFC related thread.

Honestly Sherdog should just make a Fedor centric subforum so his fans can have their circle jerks about his legacy over there. He hasn't been relevant in a long time but people seem to want to talk about him every day.

Well the guy retired, so it's hard to be relevant once you retire. And I'm mixing these 4 guys together so it is UFC related in a sense.

 

[loisestrad]

The notion that Fedor deliberately sought to prove himself by defeating his enemies on their home turf is ludicrous.

And by the way, it also contradicts the general perception of Fedor as a modest man.

The fact that Fedor was so good that he could actually make it look like he was defeating his opponent using their weapon is because he was...a superb fighter.

 

[Fengxian]

Only one of them is undefeated. Jon Goat Jones. Genghis Khan inside the cage, Jesus outside. A man I proudly call as my idol.

Fedor deliberately engage in his opponent at their strength, huh? Pretty sure I recalled him spamming takedown against Mark Hunt and Mirko, and got gifted a decision win against Arona who controlled him the whole fight.

 

[Davidjacksonjones]

Yeah Fedor probably does it the most, but Jones in his prime at LHW often did it too like you suggested

Jones struck with Gus a lot who has a strong boxing background
Out-striked Shogun who has a background in Muay Thai/boxing
Wrestled with Olympic Wrestler DC
Submitted BBJ black belt specialist Vitor Belfort etc

 

[Takes_Two_To_Tango]

The notion that Fedor deliberately sought to prove himself by defeating his enemies on their home turf is ludicrous.

And by the way, it also contradicts the general perception of Fedor as a modest man.

The fact that Fedor was so good that he could actually make it look like he was defeating his opponent using their weapon is because he was...a superb fighter.

You can be modest and also be competitive in terms of wanting to see if you can beat a certain fighter in their own game. It doesn't make him less of a person for doing that.

That's just the competitive DNA/edge he has to compete with his opponents at their strongest. Doesn't take away from Fedor the man and his character imo.

 

[Davidjacksonjones]

Only one of them is undefeated. Jon Goat Jones. Genghis Khan inside the cage, Jesus outside. A man I proudly call as my idol.

Fedor deliberately engage in his opponent at their strength, huh? Pretty sure I recalled him spamming takedown against Mark Hunt and Mirko, and got gifted a decision win against Arona who controlled him the whole fight.

I owe my life to Saint Jones. My father left me when I was just 3 years old. I never really had a father figure, until I learned about Jon Jones, and growing up he was my biggest influence in life, and was basically my role model and father figure. Whenever I had impulsive dark thoughts and temptations to do bad crimes or think bad thoughts, I asked myself what would Jon Jones do, and it always steered me in the right direction, and helped cultivate a positive, uplifting mindset.

It was also through Jon Jones, that I became a devout Christian man. Seeing him help the community and spread the teachings of Jesus also made me do the same. Now I attend bible study every week, strengthening my bond with Jesus Christ, who will be resurrected during Easter.

Jones bless

p.s. sorry for thread derail, just showing my appreciation to Saint Jones

 

[BFoe]

Nice UFC related thread.

Honestly Sherdog should just make a Fedor centric subforum so his fans can have their circle jerks about his legacy over there. He hasn't been relevant in a long time but people seem to want to talk about him every day.

This forum is also for discussion of past PRIDE, Affliction, and Strikeforce events, so get over it. The greatest mixed martial arts fighter in the history of our sport is always relevant.

 

[BFoe]

To answer the thread question, I don’t factor it into my GOAT rankings really. GSP’s style (for example) was what it was, it was super effective, and that’s fine. GSP was also an excellent striker and had great jiu jitsu, but obviously his wrestling was his bread and butter. I guess if you had what you felt was an absolute tie for GOAT, then yeah some of those weird subjective factors come into play.

 

[Takes_Two_To_Tango]

To answer the thread question, I don’t factor it into my GOAT rankings really. GSP’s style (for example) was what it was, it was super effective, and that’s fine. GSP was also an excellent striker and had great jiu jitsu, but obviously his wrestling was his bread and butter. I guess if you had what you felt was an absolute tie for GOAT, then yeah some of those weird subjective factors come into play.

Fair enough my friend. Everyone had their style and whatever works to win indeed. But I always found it courageous of Fedor to engage his opponents at their strongest. That to me is true sign of a warrior.

 

[OldBoy91]

Please mods just make a Fedor megathread/subforum so his weirdo cultists can go and worship him in there and leave the UFC discussion alone.

 

[moreorless87]

GSP is pretty much a safe fighter predominately through his career.

Anderson Silva stayed in his lane most of the time. Leaned on his advantageous.

Probably Jon Jones has done it a few times, but not as often and deliberate as Fedor.

And if Fedor seems the most daring and most risk taking when it comes to fighting and beating his opponents at their strengths. Does that increase his value as a fighter in the GOAT conversation or it doesn't?

What say you?

I don't think he did it in a macho way trying to proove himself so much as he realised that it was arguebly the better way to fight someone like Mirko who had such a strong takedown defence.
Fights like Semmy were he could target a weakness more easily he did.

I think its as much as anything the product of the era he was fighting in with a higher quality of opponent were sometimes there was not an "easy tactic" to follow.

 

[DagOban**]

GSP is pretty much a safe fighter predominately through his career.

Anderson Silva stayed in his lane most of the time. Leaned on his advantageous.

Probably Jon Jones has done it a few times, but not as often and deliberate as Fedor.

And if Fedor seems the most daring and most risk taking when it comes to fighting and beating his opponents at their strengths. Does that increase his value as a fighter in the GOAT conversation or it doesn't?

What say you?

I believe so.

And THAT is why his 10 year dominance did not last longer.

 

[BFoe]

Fair enough my friend. Everyone had their style and whatever works to win indeed. But I always found it courageous of Fedor to engage his opponents at their strongest. That to me is true sign of a warrior.

I agree, although not even Fedor was totally nuts: he wasn’t spending any time standing with Semmy Schilt, for example. Even when he returned in 2015, he didn’t stand with Jaideep for long, he took the fight where he was strongest. But I agree, Fedor’s wins against Nog and Mirko are especially legendary for how he did it.

Please mods just make a Fedor megathread/subforum so his weirdo cultists can go and worship him in there and leave the UFC discussion alone.

Personally, I think the way mods force you to click on these threads and participate is downright shameful! I hear that they threaten to ban you unless you click on every single Fedor thread and post your .02. If I were you, I’d take the complaint straight to Crave Media!

 

[Oddmonster]

GSP is pretty much a safe fighter predominately through his career.

Anderson Silva stayed in his lane most of the time. Leaned on his advantageous.

Probably Jon Jones has done it a few times, but not as often and deliberate as Fedor.

And if Fedor seems the most daring and most risk taking when it comes to fighting and beating his opponents at their strengths. Does that increase his value as a fighter in the GOAT conversation or it doesn't?

What say you?

Yes. And that is why he is the GOAT imo. He almost always fought people bigger than him, and he rarely, if ever, had a physical advantage. And he fought to his opponents strengths - striking with strikers, grappling with grapplers. His Werdum loss shows this - He jumped into the guard of the, at the time, best HW grappler in the world. Twice. Yes, it cost him - but that he did it tells me everything I need to know about him. His whole career he never played it safe - and he still did not lose for almost 10 years. At hw.

 

[Johnnny]

Fedor's biggest strength was fighting in a roped square. After the fall of PRIDE, fighting in caged octagons became the overwhelming standard for MMA. Fedor refused to evolve with the standards of the sport and stuck to fighting in roped squares for years.

When Fedor fought middleweight Matt Lindland, we saw one reason why he was so adamant about continuing to fight in roped squares. It allowed him to cheat by grabbing onto the ropes with his entire arm. The referee in the Lindland fight told Fedor at least 10 times to "let go of the ropes" and tried to physically remove Fedor's hand from the ropes, but Fedor just ignored the referee and continued to cheat.



In his early thirties, Fedor finally got with the times and made the move to fighting in caged octagons. He was thoroughly exposed in 4 straight fights. Instead of evolving his game and adapting to the caged octagon, he went back right back to fighting in roped squares on the regional circuit.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

I'd give Jones credit for this too tbh.

Wrestled Rashad
Grappler with Glover
Stood with Gus
Stood with Santos


Didn't do that with Gane though so maybe that's changed.

 

[Trabaho]

It's mma all you can do is grapple and strike.

Who did he engage at their strengths ?

 

[Oddmonster]

It's mma all you can do is grapple and strike.

Who did he engage at their strengths ?

Stood with CroCop, grappled with Werdum. And that is just 2 examples from a career full of them.