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

[gspieler]

Fedor didn't target to beat his opponents at their strengths. He just didn't shy away from them, like most do.

 

[MartinGibson86]

Of the four, hes the only one to have fought a winless fighter while the world number 1

 

[HHJ]

Of the four, hes the only one to have fought a winless fighter while the world number 1

He was the only of the four offered that for a large sum of money,thats why.

 

[Strijfy]

As much as I love Fedor, it was Jones that made the point of beating his opponents as their strengths

 

[P4p Islam]

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?

Fedor fought cans. His best wins were epic busts in the ufc lol

 

[Megatronlee]

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?

It’s not a
Video game.
Grow up

 

[HavokHarmon]

Saying he stand with strikers, and grapples with grapplers does not mean, and I can't believe I have to say it, that he ONLY grappled with grapplers, and ONLY struck with strikers. He just never ran away from either, like most other fighter do when they play it safe.

Here is a few examples -

Jon Jones vs Gane - using his strengths against his opponents weakness. He wanted NOTHING to do with Ganes striking.

Anderson Silva vs Demian Maia shows how Anderson was not willing to engage in ANY grapping. At all. none.


you will not find a Fedor fight where he runs from strikers and try to take them down constantly.
You will not find a Fedor fight where he is afraid of engaging in grappling.


Crocop fight :
Half the time they spend on the ground was because CroCop tried to take down Fedor, and got reversed. Fedor did not Jon Jones it and just go for takedowns - he stood and struck with a man many considered the best HW striker. Hell, Fedor tried to high kick crocop - a move he rarely, if ever, uses.

Werdum:
Fedor jumped into Werdums guard twice. Only closely escaping a triangle the first time - yet he still jumped into the guard again instead of backing away and letting Werdum up. And if you think jumping into the best HW grappler in the worlds guard does not count as grappling, wtf are you doing here?

Jones spent about half his fight with Gane striking.

 

[moreorless87]

Yeah the Cro Cop fight stands out to me in that regard. Jack Slack had a pretty good article about it years ago where he broke down Fedora strategy and why it was effective, basically Fedor didn’t give him room to kick and that was a pretty big part of his game.

Although I think lots of fighters tried to do that, Wanderlei the 2nd time, Aleks, etc I think the big factor was Fedor actually had the defensive ability to do it.

One of the most wrong headed bits of commonly held opinion is that he was some kind of sloppy brawler when actually at that point he had some of the best defence ever seen in MMA. You could argue I spose theres strong overlap between Fedor haters and UFC hype drones and the latter tends to push the idea that styiff upright fighters with very little head/body movement are "technical".

 

[gspieler]

Fedor fought cans. His best wins were epic busts in the ufc lol

Not cans...

Nog
Cro Cop
Arlovski
Randleman
Sylvia
Hunt
Arona
Herring
Schilt
Babalu
Coleman
Lindland

Guys like Ogawa and Rogers were undefeated prospects.

Guys like Goodridge and Fujita were tough journeyman.

There were a few freak show fights, which was just the the culture at the time.

And was fighting 3-4x per year during this run. Quite frankly, no HW has come close to touching his legacy.

The only real names missing from his era are Randy and Barnett. He was signed to fight both, at various points, and the fight got cancelled through no part of his.

 

[markg171]

Yeah the Cro Cop fight stands out to me in that regard. Jack Slack had a pretty good article about it years ago where he broke down Fedora strategy and why it was effective, basically Fedor didn’t give him room to kick and that was a pretty big part of his game.

Plenty of people have walked down and pressured Cro Cop. It's almost like that's the way to beat him.

 

[HHJ]

Plenty of people have walked down and pressured Cro Cop. It's almost like that's the way to beat him.

Before that fight who was able to consistently do it?

Its not like it was that fuckin easy. Mirko had a laser sighted right straight and Mirko wasnt exactly slow. If Mirko darts out of range he's gonna nail you with his kicks. Aleks tried that shit with Mirko and Mirko was able to eventually turn it on him.

 

[HHJ]

Also let me hear it from the east to the west


WAR FEDOR

 

[DayV]

Plenty of people have walked down and pressured Cro Cop. It's almost like that's the way to beat him.

Actually no.
In the ring only Fedor and Hunt succeded, mostly becuse Cro Cop was tired as dog from jet lag and no sleeping in Fedor fight, and had 14 bouts from august 2003 - august 2005, so he gassed after 5 minutes; and in Hunt fight Mirko had temperature and foot so injured that he had to wear shoes. It was the idea of everybody to pressure him since his first fight, but they failed.
In the cage it was totally different rules, with gorillas leaning their weight on him on the wire wall, whe they had big round space with no corners to help them be harder to hit.

 

[HHJ]

and had 14 bouts from august 2003 - august 2005, so he gassed after 5 minutes

man get the fuck out of here.

Mirko gassed because he is not used to fighting like that. He doesnt train to be on the back foot.He takes the center of the cage and is the bull and this time he was the matador. And he was gettin gored by Fedor

 

[Sweater of AV]

And was fighting 3-4x per year during this run.

Not only that, he was competing in and dominating a completely separate sport at the same time. His entire life was training and competing. It's hilarious people try to discredit him for taking extra fights.

Meanwhile, fighters today compete maybe once a year and generally play it as safe as possible.

 

[markg171]

Before that fight who was able to consistently do it?

Its not like it was that fuckin easy. Mirko had a laser sighted right straight and Mirko wasnt exactly slow. If Mirko darts out of range he's gonna nail you with his kicks. Aleks tried that shit with Mirko and Mirko was able to eventually turn it on him.

This is like saying you shouldn't walk down and pressure Justin Gaethje just because you might end up like Johnson. Even though Johnson had tons of success doing exactly that.

Keys to victory isn't a guarantee to victory. This isn't anime.

 

[HHJ]

This is like saying you shouldn't walk down and pressure Justin Gaethje just because you might end up like Johnson. Even though Johnson had tons of success doing exactly that.

Keys to victory isn't a guarantee to victory. This isn't anime.

No its not saying that at all.

But your butthurtedness prompted you to compare it to such.

 

[markg171]

No its not saying that at all.

But your butthurtedness prompted you to compare it to such.

Okay Jack

 

[moreorless87]

Actually no.
In the ring only Fedor and Hunt succeded, mostly becuse Cro Cop was tired as dog from jet lag and no sleeping in Fedor fight, and had 14 bouts from august 2003 - august 2005, so he gassed after 5 minutes; and in Hunt fight Mirko had temperature and foot so injured that he had to wear shoes. It was the idea of everybody to pressure him since his first fight, but they failed.
In the cage it was totally different rules, with gorillas leaning their weight on him on the wire wall, whe they had big round space with no corners to help them be harder to hit.

I think the idea that "walking Mirko down" was some easy tactic might actually beat claiming Fedor was a brawler for shear wrong headedness which is repeated by large numbers of people, more Rogan UFC brand spiel along with the idea that "Nog always took a beating".

In reality Mirko was an incredible counter fighter and destroyed almost everyone who tried to do that, Wand, Aleks, Herring, Igor, etc. People tend to focus on the LHK as something Mirko landed to finish when he was in control but he could land it against opponents pushing forward like Igor AND it ignores how effective his bodykick and left straight were, indeed I think in MMA those two may actually have been bigger weapons for him.

He doesnt do anything flashy like Anderson but people tend to overlook that Fedor slips Mirko's left so many times in that fight and along with blocking the mid kicks that was really key to getting the upper hand standing. On the ground again I think he exploited Mirko depending on his guard being so strong for defence, basically forced him to work so hard to maintain it stacking him up that it tired him out.

The Hunt fight honestly I didnt think Mirko looked at all good in, had a leg injury and perhaps more importantly was still hung over from the Fedor loss, he didnt look good beating Barnett the second time either IMHO. Even then of course he still landed a plum LHK which probably finishes all but a tiny handful of MMA fighters and a very nasty axe kick.

 

[HHJ]

Okay Jack